


Iron Spider: Homecoming

by kimchi_writes



Series: shocking experiences [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Tony Stark, Bucky is Cap and Steve is Winter, Crack Treated Seriously, F/F, F/M, Female! Tony Stark - Freeform, Genderbent James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Genderbent Pepper Potts, Genderbent Tony Stark, Iron Spider - Freeform, Peter Parker acting as Toni Stark's parental figure, Peter Parker and Tony Stark age swap, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Peter Parker, Self-Indulgent, She's female and sixteen, Toni Stark is Tony Stark, Toni Stark is a Spider-Person, Toni Stark is a mess tbh, and role swap, but here we are ig, everyones a mess, this was supposed to be short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 21:37:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19934887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimchi_writes/pseuds/kimchi_writes
Summary: Rhodey is besides herself next to Toni, bent over with laughter. “Were you about to say ‘my parents are dead’”Toni turns to her, wide eyed, and straightens her up. “Honeybear, I need you to launch me into the sun.”“No can do, Toni.” The older girl grins. “You’re stuck here with your poor choice of words.”----or, Toni is 16, female, the Iron Spider, and goes through the events of Spider-Man: Homecoming. All in one fic. And if that doesn't sound like a fun time, I don't know what does.





	Iron Spider: Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> HI! PLEASE READ!
> 
> A few things to note.  
> -I have no idea how colleges work  
> -Maya Hansen replaces the role of Liz Allen  
> -Aldrich Killian replaces the role of Adrian Toomes  
> -I'm sorry if I get a few things wrong in the switch of de-aging Toni Stark and placing her in the events of Peter Parker  
> -I suggust you read "Watts Up Danger" before this one, just for a but more context  
> -But you do you

Toni doesn’t even know how she ended up here. 

Actually, yeah, she does. Parker was in a meeting with the UN last week when it exploded. Literally. And the blame was put on a man known as the Winter Soldier, but James Barnes knew him better as his best friend, Steve Rogers. So, of course, Barnes ran off to go find his friend ( _although I feel like they’re something past “friends”_ ) and he didn’t want to sign the Accords because then Rogers would be affected and it was just…

A mess. 

There was this whole smackdown in Berlin where Toni stole Barnes shield and he dropped a massive crate on her and they fought and fought until they were all tired and the Black Panther was about to finish Rogers off before Romanoff stunned him. Long story short, Rogers was shipped off to Wakanda ( _WAKANDA!!!_ ) and the Prince promised that they would erase the Winter Soldier from his mind. 

After that, everyone sort of scattered. Barnes and Romanoff went to Wakanda, Banner was missing, and the Maximoff Wonder Twins moved to Scotland, and the rest of the Avengers went back to their respective homes. Which meant that Toni, Parker, and Leeds went back to New York. 

Now, back to the first line. How did Toni end up here? Here being, fighting a bunch of masked men at a bank in Queens. 

She was just doing her normal rounds and had a plane booked to fly her back to MIT in a few hours when she saw them from the corner of her eye. JARVIS hadn’t noticed anything, which meant that they somehow hacked the system. 

“Woah,” Toni exclaimed, catching one guy’s fist. “You’re not the Avengers!” 

“ _Scanning weapons…_ ” 

She flips over another man, slamming his face into one of his partners. “Thor, Hulk, nice to meet you again.” 

“ _Boss, these weapons aren’t on any known market. Energy signatures are similar to the ones from the Chitauri attack eight years ago._ ” 

“What are you guys going with alien tec- WOAH!” One of them pulls the big guns out, janking her in the air until Toni’s only gripping the floor with her finger tips. “That’s so cool!” 

“ _Please focus._ ” JARVIS desperately requests and Toni grins under her mask. 

“Okay, guys,” She says, webbing a money holder behind the guy and pulling it forward, causing him to take his finger off the trigger and she drops in a crouch. “Let’s wrap this up. I have a plane to catch, you know.” 

Toni’s about to web up one of the men when another guy’s gun lights with a lase-

_~LASERLASERLASERLASE~_

“Oh, SHIT!” Toni ducks out of the way as it cuts into the wall behind her and then goes haywire, shooting through glass and into the street. 

“ _The bodega across the street has been hit and is on fire._ ” JARVIS informs her and Toni curses again, making the quick decision to race over to Delmairs.

“Mr. Delmar!” Toni calls out, smoke filling the shop and she’s thankful for the filtration system in her suit. Her heart beaks at the state of the shop and flashbacks to when she was in civics and buying sandwiches from him arises in the back of her mind, but Toni pushes it aside. 

Thank God, she finds him quickly, grabbing his cat, too, but when she turns back to the bank again, the men were gone. With one last look at Mr. Delmair and his ruined shop, she swings up to a nearby building and watches, silently, as cops fill the area. 

“ _Parker is calling._ ” JARVIS says and she sighs. 

“Put him through.” 

“ _What’s this about a bank and Delmairs in Queen being destroyed?_ ” 

Toni hesitates. “Well, you see, I- I’m sorry.” 

“ _It’s not me you need to be sorry to, Toni._ ” Parker tells her and she bites her lip.

“I know.” She breathes out. “But these guys had some weird tech, probably from the Chitari att-” 

“ _You can tell me about it later, Toni. Right now, you need to hurry over to the tower because your plane leaves soon. Don’t worry about tonight, I’ll handle it.”_

Toni gazes down at the street, where Mr. Delmar was getting looked over by a parametic. 

“ _Also, I saw that you nominated someone to become a publicity intern for P.I. and sent the forms to me, not MJ. And under the guise of a competition?”_

“Yeah, I did. Does he have the internship?” 

Parker hums. “ _I just signed off on it, but Toni, where did you find this guy? And what type of name is Virgil Potts?_ ” 

“It was popular in the 1800’s,” Toni rambles, “So I guess it's a good one.” 

“ _He hasn’t even graduated from college yet, you know._ ” 

“And you don’t have to be a college graduate to be an intern at Parker Industries.” Toni shoots back, standing up. 

“ _I just hope you know what you’re doing._ ” Parker sighs. “ _I’ll see you at home._ ” 

“Yeah.” 

“ _Call ended._ ” JARVIS drones. 

Toni gives one last look at the mess below her before turning around and leaping off the opposite side of the roof. 

\-----

“Honeybear, I’m home!” Toni calls as she unlocks the door to her dorm room. 

“Oh, god, and I was just starting to enjoy the silence.” Rhoney quip as she sits up in her bed. 

Toni rolls her eyes with fond smile and launches herself onto Rhoney who groans as the air is knocked out of her. 

“Oof- Toniii.” 

“Rhoneyyyyy” She draws back in return. “How were your classes?” 

Rhoey hums, one hand making its way into Toni’s hair and she closes her eyes in content. “It’s not my classes we should be talking about, it’s yours. You’re not going to graduate at this rate and I don’t think ‘fighting Captain America’ counts as an excused absence.” 

“Wanna bet?” Toni smirks, opening her eyes again. 

Rhodey shakes her head with a fond look before pushing Toni off of her. “Go sleep, you have class tomorrow, it’s monday.” 

Toni whines and just melts onto the floor, rolling onto her back. “You’re so mean to me- Oh!” She scrambles over to her son. “DUM-E! How are you!” 

DUM-E beeps out a message and Toni grins. “Yes, I missed you, too. Do you need upgrades? How are you?” 

“Wow, you didn’t even greet me like that.” Rhodey deadpans from her bed. “I’m hurt.” 

Toni throws a look over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Honeybear, I love you, too.” 

The other girl rolls her eyes. “Just get ready for your classes, Toni.” 

\-----

“Don’t look up now,” Rhodey whispers over breakfast the next day, “But she’s coming over.” 

Toni blinks, setting her tablet down. “Wh-” 

“Toni!” 

A warm hand falls onto her shoulder and Maya sits down next to her in a flurry of brown hair, backwards in the chair. “I haven’t seen you in a while, where have you been?” 

“Ah-” Toni blinks. _Is that a new top? It’s cute on her oh she asked me a question fukfukfuk-_

“She’s been working on some stuff back in New York,” Rhodey pipes up. “Parker Industries stuff, you know.” 

Maya’s head tilts back, her pink lips making a perfect “O”. 

Toni clears her throat, “Uh, yeah, that’s where I’ve been. What about you? How’s the gala going?” 

She waves a hand in the air. “Oh, still planning it, you know. My dad wants things one way, but I need it to be another and just,” Maya sighs with a soft smile. “I’m working on it.” 

“Well, I’m sure it’ll be great.” Toni reassures her and Maya’s hazel eyes glint under the cafeteria lights. 

“Me, too.” Maya says, standing up. “Well, I gotta run off, but I’ll see you in history later.” 

“Yeah.” Toni breathes out, watching her walk away in her blue skirt. “Hey, Rhodes, did she g-” 

“Nah,” Rhodey interrupts. “We’ve seen it before, just not with that skirt.” 

“Ah,” Toni breathes out, still staring, before the corner of her glasses light up with a notification. Sighing, she turns around and pulls her phone out of her pocket, clicking on it.

**_Spider-People_ **

****_Parker_  
_I looked over the information JARVIS sent me about last night. Stolen tech isn’t uncommon but Karen’s looking into it.  
_ _Don’t worry about it, just go to class._

**_Toni  
_** _K  
if you're sure_

“Everything good?” Rhodey asks, eyebrows raised. 

“Yeah. Now, lemme see your notes from last week. I need to see if I missed anything.” 

\-----

Toni’s silently screaming in her head because, of course, this was just her luck. She just wanted one normal day in her World History class, but no. Toni’s professor wanted them work on something in a group and who did she end up with? 

Rhodey. _Oh, hell yeah, I fucking love her._

Maya. _OH, HELL YEAH, I FUCKING LOVE HER, TOO._

Justin Hammer. _Oh, this lil bitch boy, i’m gonna-_

“Play nice,” Rhodey hissed in her ear as she leans over to grab her laptop out of her bag. 

Toni just rolls her eyes, and ignores the way Hammer was talking. By some miracle, she manages to make it through the period and only has to suffer though twelve backhand comments from Hammer. The moment their professor excuses them, Toni can’t leave her chair quick enough, shoving her things into her bag. 

“Hey, Toni,” Maya starts and Toni slows down. “I’m having a party at my place this Friday. You should come. I know that you’re younger than all of us and I understand if that makes you uncomfortable, but it’ll be a fun time, I promise.” 

“Yeah, and bring Iron Spider with you, too.” Hammer scoffs and Maya elbows him. 

Toni think about the plans she has on Friday. _I have to fly back to New York and attend a R+D meeting with Parker but…_ “I’m free this Friday.” She tells Maya, ignoring Rhodey’s pointed glare. 

Maya _beams_ and Toni doesn’t regret it one bit. “Great! I’ll text you the details! Bye, guys!” The older girl waves at them as she slings her bag onto her back and leaves. 

Hammer zips up his bag, smirking. “See you there, Stank.” They watch him as he goes. 

Toni huffs, putting the rest of her stuff away. “He _does_ know that that’s not even insult, right? I mean, it’s even my messenger username.” 

“Don’t change the subject, Toni, you are so not free this Friday.” Rhodey says and Toni rolls her eyes.

“It’s fine. I won’t actually be doing anything there, anyways.” 

Rhodey sighs, grabbing her backpack. “You can’t just cancel on meeting like that.” 

“JARVIS?” Her HUD lights up. “Tell Parker I can’t make the meeting this Friday on the reason of socializing with fellow classmates. 

“ _Of course._ ” 

Toni pushes her glasses up with the bridge, causing the HUD to disappear. “Done.” 

“Why are you like this.” Rhodey groans. 

Toni starts walking and Rhodey joins her. “Oh, you love me.” 

\-----

It’s like Friday can’t come fast enough until fifteen minutes before the party, Toni was curled up on the floor of her dorm room, wishing for death. 

“What am I gonna wear,” She moans, turning around to look up at Rhodey who just rolls her eyes, flipping her braids over her shoulder. 

“You have so much in your closet, we literally had to move into a triple and you don't know how to wear any of it? Just pick something.” 

Toni starfishes out on the ground. “That doesn’t help. Lend me your wisdom.” 

Rhodey sighs and walks over to Toni’s closet. She was already dressed in a black crop top and jeans, an open maroon button down over it all and rolled up at the sleeves. 

“Here,” She says, after a few minutes of rummaging, tossing some clothes at Toni. 

Toni looks at them before maneuvering her way into the blue plaid pinafore and white shirt. “How do I look?” She asks, turning in a circle. 

“With your eyes, Toni.” 

Toni groans and sits on her bed, grabbing a comb and attempting to tame the mess on her head, the waves eventually laying like it should, just past her shoulders with a side part. Taking her glasses off her desk, she makes sure her HUD is up and running before turning it off. Hopefully Iron Spider won’t have to make an appearance tonight. She debates keeping her wrist attachments on before taking them off, since they were the only ones out in the open. (On a normal day Toni would just leave them on, and no one has questioned her about the cuffs yet.)

“Are you ready?” Rhodey asks, lacing up her white sneakers.

Toni nods, slipping her black Vans on and putting her wrist attachments, phone, keys, and anything else she might need into a small purse that she slings over a shoulder. “Yeah, let’s go.”

On the way out the door, Rhodey a brown leather cap off of her desk and places it on top of her braids, which she had loosely tied half back. Maya lives off campus with her parents, so the two of them grab an Uber to get there and they pull up at a big house, open with windows and party lights. It’s already crowded with people, pouring out into the walkway.

“Didn’t Maya said this party would start at like, ten?” Rhodey asks Toni as they exit the car. 

Toni shrugs. “I guess people got excited.” 

They make their way inside and surf through the crowd, picking up drinks (if Toni’s drink was slightly spiked, no one needed to know) along the way. The two of them mainly stayed to the sides, trying to talk over Hammer’s DJ-ing and ignoring the bodies that would occasionally bump into them. 

“Oh, my gosh, hey, guys!” Mary appears out of nowhere, wearing a light patterned blouse and jeans with a drink in hand. “Cool hat, Jane.” 

“Hi, Maya.” Rhodey greets with an easy grin. 

“Hi, Maya.” Toni parrots and mentally slaps herself when her voice slightly cracks. 

Mary comes closer to avoid the people walking behind her. “I’m so glad you guys came! There’s uh, pizza and drinks, help yourselves.” She says, gesturing to the kitchen and Toni raised the cup in her hand. 

“Already found it.” 

Her eyebrows raised. “I hope that’s not an alcoholic. You’re what? Fifteen?” 

“Uh, sixteen, actually.” Toni corrects with a pink face. “They let you have parties, huh,” She changes the subject. “Your parents, I mean. My parents are de- uh,” Toni stutters, “Um, they would never let me do things like that.” 

Maya laughs, “Yeah, well, my parents-” Something crashes in the distance and Maya whips around. “Would kill me if anything got damaged. Save me a dance, would you, Toni?” She sighs and waves at them before disappearing into the crowd. 

Rhodey is besides herself next to Toni, bent over with laughter. “Were you about to say ‘my parents are _dead_ ’” 

Toni turns to her, wide eyed, and straightens her up. “Honeybear, I need you to launch me into the _sun_.” 

“No can do, Toni.” The older girl grins. “You’re stuck here with your poor choice of words.” 

She’s about to say something back when the corner of her HUD activates and JARVIS speaks into her ear. 

“ _There’s been more energy signatures nearby, the same ones from the bank robbery._ ” 

Toni immediately sets her drink down on a nearby table. “I have to go.” She tells Rhodey and grabs her attachments out from her purse, shoving it into Rhodey’s arms. 

She slides easily into the waves of people and just as she’s about to leave, Toni makes eye contact with a confused Mary calling her name. Biting her lip, Toni turns around and races out, running down the street until she’s safe no one can see her before pulling her dress off and sliding the wrist attachments on. The red and gold suit slides over her as Toni taps the side of her glasses and she webs the top of a tall homes nearby until she’s flying.

_thwip! thwip!_

JARVIS thankfully lights the way for her and a few minutes later, Toni finds herself on the underside of a bridge, surrounded by bats and watching a weapons trade go down. 

“JARVIS, get me some ears.” 

Her vision shifted forward and her HUD warped to show her heat signatures. “ _Activating enhanced reconocence mode. There are two men outside, and one in the van._ ” 

“-now this is crafted from a reclaimed sub-ultron arm straight from Sokovia.” One man in a beanie said, taping his laptop to stop the video of the weapon in action, complete with flashes of blue energy and victory shouts from the recording. He turns back to his truck and pulls a large weapon out, presumably the same one from the video. “Here,” He pushes it towards the other man. “You try.” 

The other man looks at the weapon in his hands and shook in head. “Man, I wanted something lowkey like, what you tryina sell me, man?” 

Toni blinks, creeping closer from under the bridge. “J, why does that voice sound familiar.” 

“ _It seems to be our universe’s Aaron Davis, Miles Morales’ uncle._ ” 

Her lips form and ‘O’ and Toni settles to continue watching. The man from inside the truck (blue jacket) walks comes out and starts talking to Davis, while the Beanie goes through the back of the truck, calling out the different weapons they had. 

“This must be where the ATM robbers got their stuff.” 

“Ah,” Beanie pulls out two baseball shaped items. “This is our nuclear EMP. One shock from it would disable anything electronic in a ten meter radius and this one,” he holds up the other item, “would protect anything from an EMP.” 

Davis steps forward. “How would that work?” 

Blue Jacket grins. “Check it out.” He takes the protecting one and sticks it onto the truck and triggers something in the other one, tossing it far away. He turns around and grabs a radio from the truck, turning it on to static and throwing it in the same direction. 

Toni’s eyes widen as the EMP lands near her direction and she scrambles away but she’s not fast enough. The next thing Toni knows, she’s on the ground, disoriented and her limbs felt all tight. 

“What was that.” One of the men asked and Toni tried to blink through the ringing in her ears. 

Her HUD was gone and the nanites on her suit were starting to disappear, but Toni quickly gropped at Ironling, causing her backup power to kick on. 

“Did you set us up?” Blue Jacket pulls out a gun and aims it at Davis, who quickly backs away and Toni lanches herself upright, almost throwing up. 

“Hey, hey, hey, if you’re going to shoot someone, shoot me!” She cries.

“Alright,” The man says, and Toni’s suit stabilizes just in time for her to web the man’s gun away from him with a _thwip!_

She leaps forward to grab him, but the Beanie turns around and punches Toni with _something_ that causes her to fly back and hit the bridge, energy popping in and out of her suit. 

As Toni pushes herself up, much to the protest of her muscles, the van and another car, Davis’, peels away from the area and Toni webs onto back on the van. She only has a split second to regret it before she’s being dragged roughly on the ground. 

The van pulls onto a street and Toni grits her teeth as her suit scrapes against the unforgiving concrete, slamming into a trash can. She grunts and shoots out another web ( _thwip!_ ), latching onto the other side of the van. Just _knowing_ that she wouldn’t stay stuck onto the van forever, Toni grabs onto both webs with one hand and uses her free one to pull a tracker out of Ironling, using another web to shoot it to the underside of the van.

_~ROLLRIGHTROLLRIGHTROLLRIGHTROLLRIGH~_

Without thinking, she listens and nearly avoids the pink energy blast that landed on her left, close enough that her own blue reached out to meet it. 

“Ow, my ass!” Toni yelps as she tosses her feet in front of her and the van swerves down another street, causing something to fly out of the van and for her to body slam into car after car. 

Her webs snap and she rolls down the street, not even stopping as she stands back up and starts running. 

“I guess I’m gonna have to take a short cut.” She mumbles, ducking down into a side lane. “J?” 

“ _On it._ ” Her HUD map lights up and Toni grins as she activates her blasters, flying low over the homes. She swerves around them and grins as the van comes back into view, cutting her blasters off as she drops and rolls onto a flat rooftop, leaping off the end. 

“Surprise!” Toni grins, readying her web shooters to-

The air is knocked out as something large clamps into Toni’s leg, janking her up and she yelps. Her limbs are forced down as she’s being pulled towards her sky, but she bends enough to see large, large, wings and unblinking green eyes.

“What the hell?!” Toni scrambles and shoots out webs, but none of them hold. Her altitude reader in her HUD climbs higher and higher and she curses, doubling her attempt to get free. 

Soon, a beeping noise fills her ears and Toni’s being janked back down, freefalling, her stomach dropping as she spins in the air, the parachute only half catching. At that point, Toni only has a brief moment to gesture the moon off the body of water under her before she slams into it, sinking like a stone.

Toni sputters under the water, kicking and moving but she was so tangled in the parachute that she didn’t even know which way was up, fighting against the water and herself. She flashes back to the universe jumping incident months ago and can’t help but think that it’s ironic that it’s happened again, that she was struggling and sinking and sinking and sinking. Toni can’t see anything either, only water and water and she’s pretty sure that JARVIS is saying something in her ear, but she can’t tell because there’s just panic panic panicpanicpanicpanicpanicpANICPANICPANICPANI-

Suddenly, she’s being yanked by _something_ and she can finally feel the cool air on her face through her mask, in her lungs. Toni vaguely resistors that her blasters are on as she’s being tossed onto solid land and she flips over onto her knees, tearin the nanites away from her face.

In the distance, Toni can hear someone counting for her to breathe with and slowly yet suddenly, she’s aware of the painful heaving in her chest and the wet strands of hair clinging to her face. Nothing feels real, but everything is hyper solid, the dirt under her hands, the suit on her skin, the air in her face as she blinks in attempt to relieve the pressure in her head but it doesn’t work. There's buzzing around her, one that Toni recognizes, and she can see the blue sparks running down her arms and slowly, slowly, watching them, she brings herself back into her own body, still breathing w-

“ _-ith me, c’mon Toni. In, out, there you go. In and out, that’s the only thing you have to think about right now. In and out. In and out._ ” His low voice is what’s been repeating in her ear, over and over again. 

“Parker.” Toni rasps out, clawing at her hair and turning onto her side. There’s a small play structure nearby but otherwise, there was nothing around, just a park. 

“ _Hey, hey,_ ” He smooths, “ _Come back to me, there you go, deep breaths._ ” 

Toni sighs out a desperate breath and coughs, looking up at the stars. “What happened?” 

Parker hesitates for only a moment. “ _Your vitals were going haywire and you reached your altitude limit causing your parachute to deploy. Your heart rate started going haywire and I had to take over your suit for a moment to get you out of the water._ _Oh, lemme-_ ” 

The heaters in Toni’s suit kicks in and she lets out a hiss of approval. “How long has it been?” 

“ _Since you started falling? Twenty-three minutes and counting._ ” Parker informs her and Toni grunts, struggling to her feet. 

“ _Woah, woah, woah, sit back down and rest up. It’s not going to do you any good if you try to get anywhere in this state._ ” 

Toni groans, head throbbing. “Parker, I’m fi-” 

“ _Nuh-uh, you were_ not _‘bout to say ‘I’m fine’”_ Another voice drawls in her ear and Toni rolls her eyes, coughing again. “ _Ya just went through somethin’ potentially traumatic, give ya’self time to recover._ ” 

“Harley,” Toni shoots back, “I’m _fine_ , really. I just need to find this guy and I’ll call it a night.” 

“ _No, baby girl, you’re gonna head back to ya dorm now and let Jane take care of you. But if you’re not feelin’ up to it, one of us can fly down and get you._ ” 

“ _You can always come home for the weekend._ ” Parker adds and she groans. 

“Guys, it’s nothing. I’ll go back to the dorms.” 

“ _And it better be_ just _the dorms, sweetheart. No more chasin’ after this guy, we got it covered. And I mean it.”_ Harley says, his voice sincere but firm. 

“ _Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,_ ” Parker comments, “ _But don’t do anything I_ would _do. There’s a very small area in between and that’s where you need to operate._ ” 

“Yeah, yeah, okay.” Toni brushes off and stumbles a few feet forward. “I’ll, uh, head back now.” 

“ _You betta’ be headin’ back to your dorm,_ ” Harley tells her, “ _And text us when ya’ get home, ‘kay?_ ” 

“I will,” Toni mumbles and there’s a ping as Harley and Parker leave the call. 

“ _Should I find a way back to the dorms?_ ” JARVIS asks and Toni lets out a breath. 

“That would be great, J.” 

The trek back to the dorms was spent half walking and half swinging due to the suburban area that Toni had to pass through. Of course, the route JARVIS had picked was right through Maya’s neighborhood and she was about to turn into her street when JARVIS piped up, something about a small energy signature nearby. 

“What, do you think there’s a weapon nearby?” Toni asks, changing direction and lowering her center of gravity. 

JARVIS puts a pin on her HUD’s map, a small blinking light that she was edging towards. “ _I’m not sure._ ” 

Toni hums and continues, moving closer to whatever the source was until it was right in front of her. It was small and purple, pulsing and clearly not from earth. She looks around, making sure no one was around, before ignoring JARVIS’ warnings and swiping it up with only her gloved hand. 

“ _It could have been dangerous._ ” JARVIS chides and Toni rolls her eyes. 

“It’s fine. I’m safe, aren’t I?” Toni turns it over in her hands, noticing the way it glowed and hummed with energy. “JARVIS, can you start scans on this?” 

“ _I would suggest you start moving again._ ” He tells her as a light fans out from Ironling, bathing the stone in it. 

Toni bites her lip, eyes still on the stone, but continues anyway. Fifteen minutes later, she arrives at her campus and activates her camo mode so she can swing across buildings to reach her dorm window. The window which, like always, was unlocked. 

One hand is holding the stone, so Toni uses the other to stick onto the window and pull it up before crawling inside, sticking to the ceiling as she brings the window down again. Silently, making sure DUM-E doesn’t see her (because Toni can’t afford to have him beeping right now) she lowers herself back onto the ground with one arm and puts the stone down on her desk. Toni releases her suit, leaving her in a slightly damp shirt and shoes as she grabs a pair of sweatpants off the ground and shimmies into them. Tucking a lock of hair over her ear, Toni turns around-

And finds herself staring at a silently simmering Rhodey.

“Uh, Honeybear!” Toni tries. “What are you still doing up! It’s,” she glances at the time in her HUD, “It’s past twelve!” 

The older girl glares at her. “Where were you?” 

Toni waves a hand nonchalantly in the air, moving over to the closet, her back to Rhodey. “Oh, you know. Savin’ people, doing good deeds.” 

“Do you know how _worried_ I was?” Rhodey spits out and Toni freezes. “I get notified too, you know, when your vitals go off the charts and I didn’t get a proof of life or anything! I thought you had _died_ , Toni, because that’s all I get! A notification and nothing else!” She groans, frustrated. “I would have been out there looking for you if Harley didn’t have the right mind to text me.” 

“Oh, that reminds me.” Toni says conversationally, tapping a message out in her HUD. “I have to text them.” 

“My _god_ , Toni, can you please be serious just this once?” Rhodey nearly yells and from the corner of her eye, she can see her looking at the thin dorm walls. “What happened?” 

Toni grabs a sweatshirt and shucks off her damp shirt and bra, pulling the sweatshirt over her head. “Just tried to stop a weapons deal, that’s all. They’re using materials from the alien attack a few years back. I found some of it, too.” She gestures to the purple rock on her desk.

Rhodey eyes it warily, but doesn’t seem calm yet. “And your vitails? What was up with that?” 

She thinks back to the water, the parachute, the panic and makes her decision. “One of them just scared me, that’s all.” Toni climbs into her bed. 

Rhodey searches her face, but ultimately doesn’t say anything, instead coping Toni. “I grabbed your dress, by the way. You can’t keep ditching clothes like that. Also, that alien shit better not kill me.” 

“I don’t think it will.” Toni chuckles. 

And if Toni can’t stand to face the shower stream anymore and changes her face washes out with face wipes, well, no one has to know. 

\-----

“Yeah, this is a power core, for sure.” Rhodey says, sliding back from her desk. 

Toni looks up (down) from the essay she’s hammering out. It’s the Sunday after the Maya’s party and she was writing a paper on DUM-E for one of her classes. The AI was sitting below her next to her desk, beeping happily as he went through Martha Stewert smoothie recipes. 

She sits up on the ceiling from her previous lying position, her laptop firmly stuck on with webbing. “So they’re using it to power their weapons?” 

“I guess.” Rhodey shrugs, turning back to it. “My question is; how did they get their hands on it in the first place?” 

“ _The battle was eight years ago and the clean up was managed only by Parker Industries._ ” JARVIS pipped up. “ _But before that, it was a clean-up company hired by the city._ ” 

“Any familiar names?” Toni asks, grabbing her laptop and flipping off to land firmly on the ground. 

“ _None. The owner of the company, Aldrich Killian, sold it off not long after._ ” 

Rhodey turns around to look at Toni. “What happens to all the alien tech they collected?”

“It goes to DODC.” She tells her roommate, remembering what Parker told her a few years back.

“Dod-kah?”  
Toni shakes her head. “No, D-O-D-C. Department of Damage Control. It’s overseen by PI.” 

“ _Boss, the van stopped moving. There seems to be more chititari weapons near the tracker._ ” 

She’s quick to get her holograms up and running on her desk as JARVIS sends her information on the signs and a map of where it was. Rhodey comes up behind her and leans on the back of her chair. 

“Is this the guy selling the stuff?” 

Toni shakes her head. “Nah, I don’t think this is the boss. The guys from the deal were just subordinates, I think.” 

The other girl taps on a hologram of the tracker and the energy signatures around it. “Why can’t you just use your satellite to find these?” 

“Because I don’t have full access to Veronica.” Toni explains. “Veronica houses everything personal to Parker, and my section of Veronica houses all of my AIs like JARVIS, U, and DUM-E.”

Rhodey snorts a laugh. “So you only have a subsection of the smartest satellite known? I would have thought you made your own by now.” 

“I wish, honestly, but Jocasta is enough for me. Unfortunately,” Toni sighs, “Parker doesn’t let her do full Earth scans, which means that she can only scan things nearby a Parker electronic or something I made.” 

“So that means that these guys don’t use Park phones.” Rhodey adds. 

“Where did the tracker end up?” Toni asked, looking at her over a shoulder. 

Rhodey uses her fingers to zoom in on the map. “Maryland, it seems.” She furrows her eyebrows. “What even is the Maryland?” 

“Alien weapon sellers, apparently.” She bites her lip, looking back at the scans. They were the largest so far, so there were probably raw materials there, and if they got in worse hands…

“I gotta get to Maryland.” She whispers and starts pulling up different ways to get to Maryland. It was six hours away, but if she-

“You can’t go to Maryland.” Rhodey scoffs, moving towards her bed. “Just send the information to Parker, he said he would handle it, anyways.”

Toni frowns, closing her holograms. “But I have to! What if these guys start selling weapons to worse people? Drug lords? The _government?_ ” 

“Even so,” The older girl points out, “You can’t possibly skip more school that you already have.” 

She groans. “I don’t want to give this to Parker. He’s already dealing with the whole Avenger battle thing and I should close off this case. It’s mine, anyways.”

“What if you get more hurt? Remember what happened last time?” 

_Rather me than anyone else._

“I’ll figure it out.” Toni swears and all she gets from Rhodey was a raised eyebrow and a sigh.

\-----

Toni’s chance comes up on Tuesday, when she was in the library with her world history group, working on their project. It came in the form of their professor jokingly mentioning extra credit points if they went up to the Washington Monument, but knowing him, it wasn’t a joke.

Maya drums her fingers on the table. “Do any of you have a way we would go up?”

“Why don’t you just go?” Hammer asks, looking up from his laptop. “You have a car, right?”

The brunette bites her lip. “My parents took them both for the week for a trip or something.” 

“I could get us a car.” The words fall out of Toni’s mouth before she realized what she said and she flushes. “I mean, I have one. That we could use. We could drive up the weekend.” 

Maya tilts her head thoughtfully. “We could, I guess. We don’t have classes Friday afternoon, either.”

“Um, I think we should think about thi-” Rhodey is cut off.

“How do _you_ have a car?” Hammer scoffs. “I bet you got your sugar daddy to buy you one.”

Toni’s out of her seat in a second, leaning across the table. “I swear to god, if you dare insinuate that I’m fucking my _cousin_ , then you have another thing comming for you, Hammer.” 

“Woah, woah, woah.” Maya pushes Toni down with one hand and glares at Hammer. “That’s enough. Hammer, that was out of line. Toni,” Maya turns to her, “It would be wonderful if we could all drive up.” 

“I’m not going to be stuck in a car with _him_ for seven hours.” Toni shoots out.

“Believe me,” Hammer tilts his chin up, “The feeling is mutual.” 

Rhodey and Maya both groan, burying heads in their hands.

\-----

“How did I end up here?” Toni asks herself, setting her duffle bag into the trunk of the Honda Pilot that Harley sent up yesterday. ( _If Karen was actually the one who did the driving, well, so be it._ ) All Toni had to mention was that it was for a school and prove that she had finished all upcoming work, thank god.

“You’re the one who agreed to it.” Rhodey reminds her as she sets her own bag in the trunk and shuts it. 

Toni rolls her eyes and slides into the car, putting her backpack on the other seat. The Pilot was a three-row, thankfully, so Maya and Rhodey were in the front, Toni was in the middle, and Hammer was in the back. Maya and Rhodey were switching off driving halfway, if Hammer as a back up if needed, and Toni wasn’t allowed to drive at all because she was only sixteen. Much to her disappointment, her having a licence meant nothing to them. 

“Are we ready to go?” Maya asks, adjusting the rear view mirror. 

“Yeah.” Toni says, getting comfortable in her row, legs thrown across the seats.

“You guys better have good music.” Hammer calls out and Rhodey waves her phone in the air. 

“I hope you like Post Malone.” 

The first hour of the ride was mind-numbing enough. Toni spent it responding to a multitude of P.I. R+D emails regarding a few upcoming launches along with other P.I. related things. She was in the middle of filling out a report on the repairs she made on her suit yesterday (the concrete from when the van dragged her really did a number on it) when the corner of her glasses lit up with a notification from JARVIS and Toni opened the new email on her laptop. 

_Dear Ms. Jones,_

_I would be honored to accept your offer to join Parker Industries as your personal publicity intern. As stated in the document sent to me, my starting date will be on February 24th, 2019. I understand I will be based in Massachusetts, as I am attending Harvard University, with a possible relocation in the future. If there is any additional information you may require from me, please feel free to contact me and I will provide it._

_I am looking forward to working with you and Parker Industries._

_Sincerely,_

_Virgil Potts_

“ _It would seem he accepted your offer._ ” JARVIS types out in the corner of her screen and Toni grins. 

Within a few clicks, Toni has a suit sent to Potts dorm and a card that reads:

“ _Mr. Potts,_

_I look forward to working with you._

_\- Toni Stark”_

Toni always sent a note whenever someone got accepted position at P.I., it was only customary of her, but JARVIS doesn’t mention the suit and she doesn’t bring it up. Still smiling, Toni turns back to the paper she’s been working on, letting herself get lost in the words and information. 

“Bathroom break!” Rhodey calls out and Toni looks up to find that three hours had passed already. They were pulling into a parking spot in a truck rest stop off the highway.

Swallowing the dryness out of her mouth, Toni closes her laptop and drags herself out of the car, leaving Hammer to pull the seat down so he could get out and race towards the bathrooms. Chuckling, Toni walks to the trunk and pulls out bottles of water, tossing them at Maya and Rhodey who were stretching outside the car.

“Thanks,” Maya softly grins, uncapping it and drinking as Toni does the same. 

“Are you guys switching off now?” Toni asks, folding in half to press her palms against the warm ground. 

Rhodey nods, wiping the back of her hand over her mouth. She and Toni were dressed similarly in leggings and a sweatshirt, although Toni’s was a solid baby blue and Rhodey’s had the name of her hometown on hers. 

Maya pulls out a few granola bars out from the trunk and offers one to Toni, who accepts it with a smile. Hammer comes back from the bathroom and after a few sharp words (“God no, Hammer, I’m not letting you drive my car.” “It’s not even you’re car!” “But I provided it! Close enough!”) they were back on the road again, Rhodey in the driver’s seat. 

With Maya in charge of the music, softer, more lo-fi rap started flowing through the speakers and before Toni knew it, the soft tones and the rocking of the car lured her to sleep. 

_…_

_…_

_\- green eyes and moonlit wings -_

_..._

_\- water, thrashing against a parachute -_

_…_

_\- parker where’s parker -_

_…_

_…_

_\- where is he -_

_…_

_\- water only water -_

_~water only water water waterw aterwaterwater~_

Toni gasps as she snaps uprights, sputtering out the water in her mouth, on her face. 

“-ammer, what the hell!” 

“Well, it woke her up, didn’t it?” 

Toni blinks, panting, and she registers Rhodey’s face leaning towards her and Toni takes a deep breath, nodding.

“What’s wrong?” She asks and Maya groans. 

“Nothing’s wrong, Toni. We’re at out hotel and you weren’t waking up, so Hammer thought it would be a good idea to pour water on your face.” She told her and Toni swivels her head to glare at Hammer who just shrugs with a grin. 

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?” 

Toni rolls her eyes, opening the car door to step into the cool parking lot and pulling her backpack out with her. Maya follows and opens the trunk, pulling her duffle bag out along with Toni’s handing it to her. Rhodey and Hammer both get out, too, and once they all have their stuff, they lock up the car and walk into the lobby of the hotel. They get checked into their rooms pretty quickly, with Rhodey and Toni in one, Maya in another, and Hammer in the last. The three girls definitely would have shared, but the hotel rooms were apparently pretty small and having three to one room was a fire hazard. 

“Okay,” Maya says in the elevator, “Let’s all drop our stuff off and then go eat? There’s a place down the street that Yelp says is pretty good.” 

Toni looks up from her phone. “Sounds good by me.”

Hammer nods, too, along with Rhodey. Once they get onto their floor, Rhodey and Toni entered the room and Toni throws herself onto the bed.

“I hate him.” She grumbles and Rhodey snickers from behind her. 

“Just ignore him. He’s a jackass, sure, but we gotta get this extra credit.” 

Toni turns her head to look at her and Rhodey sets her jaw. “Yes, you are going to the monument with us. I’m not letting you use this trip to fight weapon dealers.” 

“C’mon,” Toni whines, sitting up. “Only one night, please, Platypus? I’ll be back tomorrow morning before you even know it.” 

Rhodey raises an eyebrow at her. “One night?” 

“One night.” Toni confirms. 

The other girl sighs. “Fine. I will give you one night, and one night only.”

Toni grins. “Perfect! Now, let’s go get pizza!” 

\-----

The walk to the pizzaria is a short one. Toni spends it talking to Maya, stuttering over a few words whenever she smiles especially wide. Out of the kindness of her heart, Toni pays for their pizzas (although it was mostly for them to not question her buying two large ones, one for herself only). They all fit themselves into a booth, Maya and Toni on one side, and waited for the pizza to arrive.

“What time are we heading out tomorrow?” Hammer asks, pulling a single airpod out of his ear.

“Um,” Maya pulls her phone out, scrolling to her notepad app. “Ten, I think. The monument opens at nine.”

Rhodey raises her eyebrows and looks at Toni. “Ten, huh? Well, Toni, you better wake up by then.” 

Toni hears the message loud and clear. _You better be back by ten. That’s fine. It give me fourteen hours._

“Toni?” Maya nudges her and she glances up to find that their pizza had arrived. 

She nods her thanks to the server and helps Maya and Rhodey put the pizza onto the stands. Hammer just puts his airpods back in and pulls in phone out, snatching a slice without a single thanks. Toni rolls her eyes and Rhodey just shrugs, grabbing one for herself. The two pizzas were meat lovers and veggie, so Toni snagged a veggie slices and Maya took a meat lover one.

“How’s the gala going?” Toni asks after her first bite.

Maya takes a sip of her water and sighs. “It’s… going. The gala’s in two weeks, but I can’t help but feel like I need more time.” 

“I’m sure it’ll turn out great.” She smiles at the other girl and flushes when Maya rubs her hand.

“You’re sweet, Toni.” 

Rhodey snorts and earns herself a glare from Toni. “What? It’s nothing.” She backpettles with a smirk.

Maya shrugs and launches into the details for the gala, which Toni soaks up like a sponge. There were details Toni already knew about, like it being a black-tie event and it being a fundraiser for the school, but there were smaller things, too, like what types of table cloths would be used and the food they had to order. Rhodey then joins in talking about her new research project and what it entailed and Toni makes comments here and there. Hammer was in his own world, completely ignoring them and all in all?

 _This is perfect._ Toni thinks, catching Maya’s eye and bursting into giggles over a new inside joke.

“So, who’s your favorite superhero?” Maya asks suddenly and Toni almost loses herself in the way her brown eyes gleam under the lights.

“Uh,” Toni stutters, “Spider-Man.”

“Cool, cool,” Maya nods. “Mine’s Iron Spider, who I guess is just Spider-Man, but cooler.” 

Toni is quick to speak up. “I don’t think she’s cooler than Spider-Man. I just, uh, think she’s her own brand, you know?”

Rhodey snorts. “Yeah, my favorite superhero is Iron Spider, too.” The other girl smirks at Toni over her sip of water.

Toni glares at her and only stops when Maya starts to continue talking.

\-----

“You better be back by ten tomorrow.” Rhodey crossed her arms over her chest and Toni rolls her eyes, sliding her flight shirt over her head.

Her flight outfit was made for missions, a thin black shirt and tight leggings, with blue lines running down the sides of both. The boots were next, looking more like sock leggings than actual boots, but they melded into the leggings and the bottoms were soled. They provide the same support as a shoe but flexible enough that they worked with the suit. 

“I’ll be fine.” Toni says again, flipping the short tail of her braid over her shoulder. She slid all of her attachments back onto her wrist and ankles and attached the back one right above her shoulder blades.

Rhodey tosses a backpack at her and Toni opens it to find food, water, first aid, and tools. Anything Toni might need, but she still looks up to peer at Rhodey through the blue lenses of her glasses.

“Honeybear, you know I’m not gonna die, right?”

The older girl shrugs. “Well, I can’t be sure with you.” 

Toni rolls her eyes and grabs a grey sweatshirt out of her duffle bag, zipping it up her chest. “I’ll be back before you know it, but if I’m not.” She pauses next to Rhodey on her way out. “Cover for me, will you? And take care of the alien tech.”

Rhodey makes a frustrated noise but nods anyways. “Now, you, go. And come back in one peice.” 

“I will!” She laughs and opens the door, letting it close behind her as and she looks up to find-

“Oh, uh, Maya,” Toni stutters. “What are you doing here?” 

Maya gives her a weird look and it’s only then that Toni notices her swimsuit and towel draped over one shoulder. “I was about to get you two and see if you guys wanted to go swimming. Hammer’s already downstairs.” 

“Uh, well, i’d love to join you, but I gotta go do something.” Toni bluffs, sliding around the older girl and walking backwards down the hallway. “Sorry!” She calls out and ignores the concerned look Maya gives her as she disappears into the stairwell.

“Let’s do this.” Toni says under her breath as she presses the side of her glasses and the Iron Spider suit slides over her. “Camo mode.” She tells JARVIS, tucking her sweatshirt into her backpack. The cool breeze from the roof washes over Toni and she sighs out.

“ _Camouflage Mode Activated.”_

As the suit shifts to become nearly translucent, Toni stands and stretches, walking to the edge of the roof and looking down at the pool, where Rhodey, Maya, and Hammer were. Despite Hammer being an asshole, they looked like they were having fun.

“Radio Silence Protocall, J, override code ‘Barley-Peacock-Made In-Two-Mandrin’.”

“ _Override code successful. Radio Silence Protocall activated._ ” JARVIS tells her and a moment later, Ironling flashes in an outline of dark blue before disappearing back into the camoflauge. 

_thwip! thwip!_

Toni swings from building to building and rolls onto a rooftop as the van’s tracker in her HUD’s map starts moving. “JARVIS, get me a path to the tracker.”

“ _Sure thing, Boss._ ” 

With a grin, Toni starts swinging again. Maryland is about half an hour away by swinging, but Toni cuts it close and makes it in twenty, swinging onto the highway as JARVIS directs.

“ _Take the truck on your left._ ” JARVIS says and Toni swings onto it, rearranging herself on top of the giant tubes it was carrying. “ _I recommend you stay on here. It seems to be following nearly the same path as the van._ ”

“Thanks, J.” Toni tells him and turns the heating in her suit up just a little bit more because it wasn’t fun having wind blown in your face at seventy miles an hour, Iron Spider suit or not. In fact, the only way Toni was staying on the truck was the natural stickiness of her suit and fingertips, a fact she tried not to think about often. 

She sighs and leans back onto her backpack, staring up at the stars above. 

“Any news?” Toni asks and regrets it as JARVIS replies back with, “ _Radio Silence Protocall, Boss._ ” 

Toni groans but settles down, just thinking, and falling into a half-sleep with the lulling of the truck before JARVIS lets out a small full-suit tremor to wake her up. 

“ _Jump off to the left._ ” He instructs and Toni leaps off the truck, rolling as she hits the ground and coming up in a crotch in the grass there.

The highway was loud to her left, but the area was lit up by the nearby gas station, where the van was parked. Toni stays low and scutters forward a few meters to get a better vantage point.

“ _Detecting three individuales._ ”

“Why is their secret lair in a gas station,” Toni whispers, “That is so lame.” 

_thwip! thwip!_

Toni rests on her hunches, balancing on top of the gas station sign. 

“J, what are they doing?” 

JARVIS zooms her view in, turning it colored as her heat sensors kick in. “ _Activating enhanced reconocence mode._ ”

“-I got your gauntlet from the Lagos clean up, the rest is all mine.” 

“I can’t believe they’re still cleaning up that tri-skillian mess.” 

“I love ‘em. They keep making messes, we keep gettin’ rich.” 

“Target inbound.” 

Toni crouches lower on the sign. “What? They’re in the middle of a heist! I can catch them all red-handed, this is awesome.” She shifts forward. “Okay, I’m gonna a lil’ closer to see what’s happening.” 

“ _Would you like me to engage enhanced combat mode?_ ” 

Toni looks down. “Uh, enhanced combat mode? Did Parker add that feature? Ye-yeah!” 

JARVIS tunnels her vision, the heat sensor screen miniaturising and resting in one corner of her HUD as the rest of it tinted red. “ _Activating Instant-Kill._ ” 

Toni backpettel, waving a hand out in front of her. “No, no, no, I don’t want to _kill_ anybody.”

“ _Deactivating instant kill._ ” JARVIS releases the mode and Toni sighs in relief. “ _You should familiarise yourself with the enhanced combat mode._ ”

“I’ll do that later, J.” Toni tells him and leaps off the sign and onto the roof of the convenience store, moving over to the edge. 

“ _~Six-Alpha-Niner, are you running on time?~_ ” Toni’s suit picks up a call and she looks to the highway to see three masive trucks headed their direction.

“ _~Copy, central, this is Six-Alpha-Niner. On schedule.~_ ” The driver in the front van says and JARVIS runs scans on the truck only to find them blocked off.

“Only Parkar government trucks can do that.” Toni thinks out loud and the van picks up in action.

“Green light, green light,” One of the men were saying and Toni hears a mechanical whirling above her and looks up to see massive wings flying down, blanketed against the dark sky.

“Ah, that’s him.” Toni gasps, moving back.

She watches as he comes up behind the one in the back, shooting out what seemed to be stabilizers before tossing down smaller items that caused a portion of the truck top to glow purple. The wings stay in place as the winged man disengages from it and jumps down into the truck.

“No outgoing distress signals, you’re all clear.” One man in the truck reported. 

Toni curses and swings herself onto the roof of the gas station, running off the other end to land softly onto the back truck. She creeps to the edge and glances down into the purple area, surprised to see straight into the truck through the milky purple space.

“ _Boss, do not to-_ ”

She reaches out and touches the surface of the purple, flinching back as her fingers went right through. “Woah, cool, it’s like some kind of matter-phase-shifter.”

“ _Camouflage mode deactivating._ ” JARVIS tells her and she curses, looking down at her hands as they become visible to everyone outside her HUD. “ _I told you not to touch it, Boss. It interferes with the suit._ ”

“Okay, coming up.” The winged man said from inside the truck, close enough that Toni could hear it with her enhanced senses and she scrambles back from the edge.

The man leaps up out of the truck with a duffle bag and sets to strap back into his wings.

_thwip!_

“Hey!” Toni shouts, bag in hand. “This doesn’t belong to you!”

The man turns around and glares at her with unblinking green eyes, jumping back into his wings.

“Oh, god.” Toni says under her breath and she only has a split second to jump over his large form as he dives towards her. She rolls as she falls and comes up standing.

_thwip! thwip!_

The webs uselessly fall and Toni glances down from her hands to the winged man’s looming form.

“J, what was that!” 

“ _The purple stuff messed it up. Everything should be back to normal now._ ” JARVIS informs her and she webs one wing, almost immediately regretting it as he nearly janks her off the side of the truck.

The two of them struggle for a moment as they dance to the bottom edge of the truck and Toni _just_ has him, close enough for her to touch. Close enough, too, that the man’s wired taloned boots grab onto the duffle bag and suddenly it’s a tug-of-war. She puts everything into it, leaning back with her muscles straining, but he’s got big mechanical wings so really, it doesn’t seem like a fair fight. 

The man lets go all of a sudden and Toni’s flying back, her breath catching as she tumbles down into the truck, landing on her face. She groans and pushes herself up, pulling her feet in to jump-

\-----

There’s a rumbling underneath her and a sharp jolt as Toni blinks awake, groaning. Everything swims into focus, the cages on either side of her and the dim light coming from the corners. Toni rolls onto her side and groans as her vision swims again, black patches forming as her head throbs.

“Ugh,” She whispers pitifully, bringing her hand up to cup one side of her mask. “My head.” 

“ _You appear to have a mild concussion._ ” JARVIS tells her, his volume thankfully lowered.

Toni looks around again and takes in her surroundings, using the crates to struggle to her feet, pausing when the vertigo becomes too much. She struggles in a breath, turning in a full circle. 

“Hey, so where am I right now?” Toni asks, blinking deeply before starting to look through the crates. Her HUD sensors were down, with only a few things remaining.

JARVIS hesitates. “ _I’m not sure._ _The container walls are hindering my sensors._ ” 

“Wait a minute.” She pauses in her search. “They musta’ hijacked the truck and taken me to their evil lair.”

“ _I wish I could object, but it does seem likely._ ” 

Toni takes a deep breath. “Okay, J, we’re gonna have to fight our way out of this one.” She turns to one en of the truck, bouncing on her feet to gain momentum. 

“Three,” bracing, “Two,” pushing forward, “One!” She bursts out the end of the truck and comes up in a roll, fists ready, before flinching back at the bright light and white walls.

“JAR?” Toni whimpers and her vision immediately dims, stabilizing the white light into something she could actually see. She lowers her arms, taking in the tall stacks of giant cargo crates lined neatly in rows.

“What is this place?” She breathes out. “JARVIS, where am I?” 

“ _You’re in the most secure facility on the eastern seaboard._ ” 

Toni turns around and face palms as she reads the words. “No…”

“ _The damage control deep storage vault._ ” 

“Seriously!” Toni cries, exasperated. _Out of_ all _the places!_

She runs to the large shut gates and scrambles up it to where the two seams meet, bracing herself and trying to pull it open. Toni tries a multitude of ways and would have used her blasters, too, but her suit power read “ _69%_ ” and she didn’t want to risk it. 

“ _The door will most likely remain closed until morning._ ” JARVIS helpfully chirps as Toni kicks the wall. 

“Morning?” Toni sighs and resorts to giving up for now. 

Five minutes later, she was laying down in a web hammock, swinging gently. “Hey, J, you said that Parker upgraded the suit? When did that happen? He hasn’t had his hands on my suit for months.” 

“ _Last week,”_ JARVIS tells her, “ _He likes to sends nanites to your room at night and add upgrades to your suit._ ” 

Toni sits up. “And why didn’t you tell me?” 

“ _You never asked._ ” JARVIS shoots back and Toni groans, rolling out of her hammock.

“So _that’s_ how he’s been doing it. Well,” She lands on the ground. “What did he add?” 

“ _We could go through them if you want._ ” He suggests and Toni grins.

Enhanced combat mode (or Instant-Kill, as JARVIS likes to call it) ups all of her attacks. Her waldos come into play with tasered ends and are controlled by JARVIS, as well as her fingers. They drew energy from an entirely separate power pack, too, besides herself and her backup in Ironling.

The other one beside that were the web wings, activated with a sharp jolt of energy right along her sides. Toni spent a few minutes gleefully jumping off the rafters and gliding to the ground, changing directions with only the lift on an arm.

Toni finds herself laying on the top of a crate, having donned her sweatshirt again.

“Should I tell her I’m Iron Spider?” She wonders, eyelids heavy. 

“ _Who is ‘her’?_ ”

“Maya. She’s” Toni huffs out a laugh. “She’s the best, you know. She’s awesome. I know she’s just a girl who goes to my school but, uh, yeah… I really _want_ to tell her but it’s kinda weird, you know?” She cracks a small, self deprecating smile. “‘Hey, I’m… I’m Iron Spider.’”

“ _What’s weird about that?_ ” JARVIS softly asks.

Toni shrugs with her hands. “What is she’s expecting someone like Peter Parker? I mean, imagine how disappointed she’d be when she sees me.” 

“ _Well, if I were her, I wouldn’t be disappointed at all._ ” 

“Thanks, JARVIS. That’s really nice of you to say that.” She lays in silence and starts nodding off before she remembers that she’s _trapped_.

“Hey, how many minutes have we been here, anyways?” 

“ _Thirty-seven minutes._ ” 

“What?!” Toni sits up. “Thirty-seven minutes, that’s insane! I cannot _take_ this anymore!” She groans, somersaulting off the edge of the crate. “I gotta- I gotta get out of here.” 

Toni goes back to the crate she initially broke out and sheds her jacket, kneeling down next to the duffle bag she stole from the winged man.

“I need to stop calling him the ‘winged man’.” Toni mumbles and JARVIS speaks up.

“ _What about ‘The Vulture’? He does look like one._ ” 

She glances up for a moment. “J, this is why you’re my favorite.” 

“ _Wait till I tell DUM-E that._ ” 

“Please don’t.” Toni groans and unzips the bag, pulling out item after item. “Okay, let’s see.” 

A weird circle thing. “Nope.” 

A decapitated Ultron head. “That’s awesome.” 

“Hey, it’s like the glowing thing!” Toni hums, holding the purple pulsing orb in her hands. 

“ _After reviewing what information I can find in this area, that… glowing thing is an explosive chitari energy core._ ” 

“Woah, woah, woah,” Toni sets the _explosive energy core_ down and backs away from it. “You mean we’ve been carrying around a _bomb_?!” 

“ _It would require radiation to transform it into an explosive state._ ” JARVIS helpfully tells her and Toni pulls her phone out of her nanite pocket, clicking on Rhodey’s profile. 

The call fails and Toni groans. “No, no, no, no, no!” She runs out of the crate and faces the sealed gates. 

_thwip! thwip!_

She starts pounding on the door and screaming before looking to her right at the black box high up on the door. “J, you have to help me override that time lock!” 

“Okay, JARVIS,” Toni says a few minutes later, hanging upside down from the ceiling with her backpack, a pen and notepad in hand. “Lower the voltage and run it.” She instructs, punching some numbers into the calculator she webbed onto the wall. 

“ _Trial: uncesssful._ ” 

“Okay, we’re just gonna have to try every sequence.” 

\-----

Toni yawns as she writes something down and tries another set of numbers. 

“ _Initiating trail two-hundred-and-forty-seven._ ” 

The doors start sliding open and Toni almost cries in relief. “It worked! It worked!

Without hesitating, Toni swings out and activates her camo mode again, scrambling on the ceilings until she finds another truck heading out of the gates, which she gladly drops onto. From there, JARVIS instructs her to jump from truck to truck, the whole time calling Rhodey but her calls were going through.

“God,” she curses, “What the hell are they going to think!” 

Looking at her HUD which fully rebooted as soon as she left the compound, the curses again. It was nine-twenty-seven, she only had thirty-three minutes to get to DC.

“ _The fastest we get there is in forty five._ ” JARVIS tells her. “ _You could fly, but you would run out of power and pass out before you even reached the city._ ” 

Toni groans, thinking through her options. “Okay, so I’ll show up late or something. What are the chances that the core explodes today?” 

“ _Ninety-eight-point-three percent, Boss._ ” 

“Which means that Iron Spider needs to be there.” Toni mumbles. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. J, Iron Alibi Protocol, Parker Tower file.” 

“ _On it, Boss._ ” 

All Toni could do now was wait. JARVIS was busy uploading onto all of her social media stories a picture of the well known Stark Lab, or the one the public thinks is her own, but is just one created for face image. Her own private labs were next to Parker’s and Harley’s on a separate floor. That way Toni could say she was in New York, even if she wasn’t. 

Toni resists the urge to scream and settles down to clenching the truck she was on hard enough that the metal creaks. 

“ _Reaching the city now._ ” JARVIS tells her, snapping her out of the half trance she was in and jumping off the truck. 

_thwip! thwip!_

Toni swings through DC with vigor, following the path JARVIS gave her. Soon enough, she sees the monument in the distance and flips down onto the ground right as a loud explosion noise emitted from the top, loud enough that the people around her could hear it. 

“No, no, no, no, camo mode off, JAR.” Toni mumbles the people nearby gasp as she seemingly pops out of nowhere. “What’s going on up there?!” 

Her feed zooms in, switching to X-ray mode to scan the building. At the top, an elevator was stuck, with four bodies in it. 

“ _The CHITARI core has detonated and caused severe structural damage to the elevator_.” JARVIS reports and Toni nearly jumps when a hand lands on her shoulder. 

“There could be a group of kids up there!” A woman frantically tells her. “I saw them go into an elevator just as I left!” 

“What?!” Toni nearly screams, realizing that they were her friends. “Don’t worry, ma’am, everything’s gonna be okay.” 

“‘Scuse me, ‘scuse me!” She calls out, allowing herself only one moment of _shit, that’s tall_ before leaping into the air and clinging onto the building.

Toni repeats it a few times, trying to gain height slowly. “Gimme eyes and ears up there, J!” 

The corner of her HUD pings and connects to what seemed to be the camera in the elevator. Rhodey and Hammer were on one side of the elevator, with the tour guide and Maya on the other, staring at Rhodey’s backpack laying on the ground. 

“Ohmygod, look at the ceiling.” Hammer whimpers and in the corner of the camera, Toni can see the familiar orange lines of flaming steel. 

“Stay calm, everyone.” Maya tried.

“We’re all going to die here.” Hammer says faintly.

“ _Estimating ten munites until catastrophic failure._ ” JARVIS comments. 

Toni grits her teeth, scrambling up the Washington Monument faster. “What about blasters?” 

“ _I would advise using them, Boss. The chances you will need them later are at eighty-_ ” 

“I don’t need stats right now!” Toni cries out and curses as she nearly falls.

The tour guide sighs. “Okay, guys, I know that was scary, but our safety systems are working.”

“ _Safety systems are completely failing._ ” Her AI interjects.

“We’re very safe here.” The tour guide monotonically says.

More numbers flash at the corner of Toni’s HUD. “ _The occupants are in imminent mortal danger._ ” 

_thwip! thwip!_

Toni launches herself higher. “I’m going as fast as I can!” 

“ _You now have one-hundred-and-twenty-five seconds until catastrophic failure._ ” 

“What! Why!” Toni pauses for a moment and looks up, her X-ray feed showing people climbing out of the elevator.

“ _Unexpected motion has caused the deterioration to escalate._ ” 

Her thoughts run through her head as she thinks through her choices. “Okay, Ironling,” She sends a spark down to her chest and her drone flies out. 

Another feed shows up right under the elevator camera feed as JARVIS takes control of Ironling. “ _Locating optimal entry points._ ” Ironling hovers outside a small window at the top. “ _PRoceed to southwest window._ ” 

“J, I’m on my way!” Toni shuffles to the edge of the tower and swings her body onto the other side, yelping as she slides out slightly. 

Toni finally, finally reaches it and rolls over so her front is open to the sky. 

“ _Don’t look down._ ” JARVIS advises as Toni looks over the edge, down. 

“Ohmygod.” Toni wimpers, slamming herself back onto the sunbaked stones. “Okay,” She starts moving towards the window. 

“ _You have also not reinstalled your parachute. A fall from this height would most likely be lethal._ ” JARVIS hellpuly points out and Toni locks that fact far, deep, into her mind.

Toni balances on the edge of the window and reaches out with one foot, kicking the glass and groans in frustration when it doesn’t even crack. “Why isn’t it breaking!” 

“ _It’s forign ballistic glass. You’ll have to create more momentum._ ” 

Toni looks around for options and breaths out. “Okay.” 

_thwip!_

Taking a deep breath, Toni carefully grabs onto her web and leans backwards, praying to every single parthenon out there that it doesn’t snap as she takes a few steps down, balancing onto the window. Bending her knees, she tenses and the kicks out, landing on the glass. The first attempt doesn’t work, so Toni tries it again, harder this time. It earns her a single hairline crack. 

From behind her, Toni can hear helicopters approaching and she redoubles her efforts. Two loud blaring noises interrupts her. “ _~This is D.C. Metro P.D.! Identify yourself!_ ” 

“There are people in there, there are people in there, stop!” Toni desperately rambles as she takes in the guns pointed at _her_.

“ _~Return to the ground!~”_

The elevator camera starts shaking more and Toni focuses on it enough to see Hammer wildly scrambling out. Toni can _see_ the tour guide and some other people standing at the top through the window and she glances back at the helicopters again.

“ _~Stand down!~_ ” They order again and Toni has to roll her eyes. 

_God, you try and help_ one _person…_

 _“~Return to the ground immediately!~_ ” 

Toni picks her plan B, abandoning the window to scramble to the highest point of the monument, moving around the different planes to throw the cops off. 

“ _~RETURN TO THE GROUND OR WE WILL FIRE!~_ ” 

Toni holds onto the peak with one hand, opening the other half of her body to the ground. 

“ _~THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!~_ ” 

“Ahh, I’m gonna die.” Toni breaths out and leaps off the peak, flying over the helicopter. 

She snaps operating her web wings, arching over the blades and webs the landing skis, rocketing towards the window and she pencils her body as she smashes perfectly through the glass. Shards and screams rained down around Toni as she slides towards the elevator, webbing the top of the falling elevator car, bracing her feet on either side of the doors as the car catches, straining her muscles. From where she was, Toni would hear Maya and Rhodey screaming below her. Toni throws a glance over her shoulder to confirm that yes, Maya and Rhodey were the only two left.

“Okay, okay, I did it!” Toni rambles just as the gears on the elevator snaps and she’s janked forward into the elevator shaft. 

The air is knocked out of her as she slams into the shaft walls and lands on her back in the elevator car and it causes it to start falling all over again. Ignoring Rhodey and Maya’s screams, Toni shoots out a web to the top of the shaft, catching herself on the broken lip of the elevator ceiling. 

The web catches and Toni breathes out a prayer, looking upside down at both girl. “Uh, hey, how ya’ doing? Don’t worry about it, I gotchu’.” 

“You fucking better.” Rhodey gasps, pressing herself against the walls and Maya’s not in any better state. 

Taking a deep breath, Toni start pulling the elevator up one hand at a time, slowly inching higher and higher. The web groans and Toni groans more, but she just grits her teeth and continues until the elevator arrives at the broken doors.

“A’right, this is your stop.” She manages to get out and the people at the top rush to get the doors open.

Rhodey is pulled out first and she turns, wide eyed, to stare at Toni with a shaky smile. Maya’s the only left and Toni’s telling her to go, go, go because the elevator is braking and-

The elevator panel Toni was on snaps and Toni desperately reaches out, _just_ missing Maya by only a few inches. Toni cries out and shoots a web but that misses to and suddenly, Toni let herself fall, turning right side up in the air to grab Maya by the waist with one hand, forming blasters with her other three limbs, as well as her back one. 

They hover there, panting for a few moments as Maya wimpers into her ears and Toni grips her tighter, but they can't stay there forever. 

“M-uh, can you tell me your name?” Toni says, mentaly beating herself for almost letting her name slip. Thankfully her voice modulator was working, too, causing her to sound slightly more mature with more of a Queens accent. 

“Ma-Maya.” The girl stutters out.

Toni hums. “Okay, Maya, I need you to wrap your legs around my waist, can you do that for me? It frees up my other hand and then I can fly us up much faster. I promise I won’t let you go.”

It’s a bit awkward because she’s a few inches tighter, but Maya manages well enough, gripping tightly, but Toni wouldn’t say anything. 

“Okay, now hands around my neck, you got it, there you go.” Toni treasures her. “You still with me?” 

Maya lets out a choppy breath. “Ye-yeah, I am.” 

“Good. I’m going to let go of your back now, okay?” She asks. “If you ever feel uncertain, just tell me and we can go back to this, okay?” 

The other girl whimpers and Toni bites her lip. “I need you to tell me, Maya. I can’t do anything until you say so.” 

“Ye-yes. I got this.” Maya adds, more so for herself.

Toni takes it anyways, slowly slipping her arm away from Maya’s waist and forming a blaster. They’re moving faster now that the blasters weren't unbalanced. 

“What do you know about the Washington Monument?” Toni asks her, looking up at the light above them that seemed far away. 

Maya buries her head on the side of Toni’s neck and breathes out the answer. “It’s ro-roughly five-hundred-and-fifty-five feet tall an-and the walls are fi-fifteen feet thick. Um, it’s th-the world’s tallest tower and, um,” 

“Good job, Maya, keep going.” Toni encourages her. They were only a few feet away from the entrance. 

“Th-the staircase has eight-hundred-and-ninety-seven steps and,” Maya grips onto her tighter and Toni silently flies through the broken elevator door, landing gently and ignoring all of the looks and phones pointed their way.

Toni cuts her blasters and wraps her arms around Maya. “We’re here, Maya. You made it.” 

The girl slowly removes her head from Toni’s neck, letting her foot drop. “We- what?” 

“You did it.” Toni repeats slowly, taking in Maya’s panicked look and slowly lowering the both of them down as Maya’s legs give out. 

“Breathe with me, Maya.” She instructs. “In, out. In, out. You’re okay. No one got hurt today.” 

She doesn’t let go of Toni and Toni lets it be, rubbing studying circled into her back. “You’re in the Washington Monument. The time is eleven oh’ seven. The date is February twenty-third. You with me?” 

Maya moves away from Toni and blinks as she slows her breathing. “Th-thank you.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” She reluctantly moves away as the Rhodey rushes to help Maya, only spearing Toni a single glance. 

Breathing out herself, Toni takes in the people recording her and nods at them walking backwards before falling down the elevator shaft. 

\-----

Toni takes a deep breath and knocks on the door in front of her. A few moments later, Hammer opens it and gives her a sneer that doesn’t meet his red-rimmed eyes, leaving it open for Toni to walk through. Everyone was in the room, with Rhodey and Maya on the bed and Hammer settling down on the armchair by the window, picking up a glass of something that pricked Toni’s nose. Alcohol. 

She takes in Maya’s tear streaked face and her mouth goes dry, all the words she was practicing in the way up dissolving into nothing. “Um, Maya, I’m sorry a-about what happened today. I didn’t mean to ditch you guys, but I got an emergency call from the lab back in New York and-” Toni shifts on her feet. “I’m sorry. I should have been there.” 

“No,” Maya sniffs, whipping her hand with an MIT sweater paw. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Someone planted a bomb in the el-elevator and it just… You didn’t want to go through that. You shouldn’t ever have to go through something like that.”

Rhodey pats the empty space on the bed beside her and Toni’s quick to shuck off her shoes and backpack to jump into Rhodey’s embrace with a whisper of “Honeybear”. Toni has so many questions to ask ( _What happened? Why didn’t you pick up your phone? Are you okay? Does she_ know _?_ ) but for now, the four of them stay within the safety of the hotel room.

\-----

“I don’t want to drive.” Maya mumbles the next morning as they pack their bags away into the car and Toni gives her a sad half smile. 

“You won’t have to, it’s okay.” She tells her but Maya looks to the side, taking in a deep breath.

“Yeah, but you’re underage and Hammer’s hungover. I can’t make Jane drive the whole way.” The other girl breathes out.

Toni shakes her head. “You don’t have to drive. Let yourself rest.” She leads Maya to the second row in the car and ignore her questioning eyes as she climbs into shotgun.

“Um,” Hammer pipes up from the back. “I don’t think Princess Parker is tall enough to sit up there.” 

She flips him off with one hand and reaches over to press her palm to the drivers wheel. As soon as her fingertips meet the leather, the areas lit up in a light blue and a few moments later, the car radio blinked to life with a blue wave length.

“ _Good morning, Ms. Stark._ ” Karen’s voice floods through the car. “ _Where would you like to go today?_ ” 

“Can you take us back to MIT, please?” Toni asks and buckles herself in. 

Rhodey walks up to the car, hands full of Starbucks, and takes one look at Toni in shotgun before sighing and climbing into the driver’s seat. 

“ _Of course. Good morning, Ms. Rhodes._ ” 

“Good morning, Karen.” Rodey responds, handing out the drinks and Toni takes her hot chocolate gratefully. 

“God fuck- of course she has an AI driving the car.” Hammer says under his breath in the back seat. 

The seams of the drives wheel lights up and glows a soft blue. “ _Is everyone buckled in?_ ” 

Everyone says some sort of confirmation and Karen takes it as an answer, pulling the car out of park and they were on their way. As soon as Karen enters the highway, Toni nods off to sleep.

\-----

Toni wakes up when she rolls the wrong way in her bed, causing a sharp spike to fly up her arm. She blinks away the sleep in her eyes, finding herself enveloped in blankets in a mostly dark room. Rhodey’s at her desk and Toni sits up, poking at the IV needle in her arm.

“Please don’t do that.” Rhodey says and she glances back up to find the other girl looking at her. 

Toni looks around, taking in their slightly messy dorm room. “What happened?” 

“nothing happened.” Rhodey sighs. “You fell asleep in the car and I didn’t want to wake you up. This was yesterday.” 

“Today’s monday?” Toni frowns. “What’s this for, then?” She raises the arm that has the nettle stuck in it and gestures to banana bag hanging next to her bed.

Rhodey stands up then, moving over to check it. “You were sleeping for a while, so I had JARVIS check your vitals which were, all in all, not very good. If you had kept it up for another day, an alert would have gone out, so I hooked you up.” 

“Oh. Thank you.” She meets Rhodey’s eye and tries for a smile, but the other girl, quite frankly, looked exhausted. Her braids were piled on her head in some semblance of a bun and she was dressed a sweatshirt and shorts, which was unlike her. 

“Now,” Rhodey takes Toni’s arm and removes the IV. “Go shower or something. You stink.” 

Toni rolls her eyes at Rhodey, but slips out of her bed anyways, finding herself in sweatpants and a T-shirt. She doesn’t say anything, only grabs her caddy and a change of clothes and heads to the showers. The water was too hot for a normal person, but Toni indulges herself, going through her entire routine and finishing an hour later.

“Wait, why don’t we have class.” Toni asks as she slips back into her dorm room. 

“The admins canceled classes for the four of us.” Rhodey doesn’t turn away from her laptop, but the curtains were open, flooding the room with light.

DUM-E beeps happily and Toni crouches down to entertain him for a few minutes before slipping into her desk next to Rhodey’s. 

“How’s Maya doing?” Toni brings up as she opens her laptop. 

The other girl sighs. “She’s… I don’t know. I texted her a few times and it looks like she’s just throwing herself into planning the gala.” 

“I’m glad I caught her in time.” She mumbles and Rhodey gives her a brief smile. 

“You’re trending, you know? Because you saved us all. And the DC Metro. PD faced some backlash because they were lowkey attacking you.” 

Toni frowns. “They were just doing their jobs, we all were. I should probably make a statement.” 

Rhodey shakes her head. “Don’t bother, Peter already did. Something about how Iron Spider is in accordance with Spider-Man or whatever.” 

“Oh, shit.” Toni looks around the room and finds her glasses on her bedside table, sliding them on to find- “Oh, they haven’t texted me. Why haven’t they texted me?” 

“That’s when you know you’re in the doghouse.” Rhodey snickers. “But I don’t think they’re mad at you, though. I texted them to let you know you were sleeping and that’s it.” 

Toni just sighs and pulls up a hologram to text their group chat. 

**_Gang Gang_ **

****_Tones_  
_hi, im awake  
_ _sorry about the washington monument_

****_Harles_  
Toni!!!  
_Good to see you’re awake. Don’t worry about the WM_  
Wasn’t your fault

****_Petey_  
_That is very debatable, but I will ignore the root of the WM incident.  
_ _Because there was no possible way a chitari energy core could have gotten inside the elevator, right?_

**_Tones  
_ ** _right_

****_Harles_  
_Look, Toni, we’re gonna turn a blind eye to this incident because all in all, you did a fantastic job with no casualties, but we can’t continue this  
_ _We said we would look into this, and we are, but you need to focus on other things_

**_Petey  
_ ** _Like school._

**_Harles  
_ ** _Exactly_

****_Tones_  
what if I find you guys a lead?  
_I know a guy just give me a day_  
please

****_Petey_  
_…  
_ _Fine. You have until classes start, so two days._

****_Tones_  
_thank you  
_ _also yall know abt the vulture dude right_

**_Harles  
_ ** _Haha nani?_

****_Tones_  
_he flies around with these big mechanical wings and just  
_ _i’ll get J to send pics_

**_Petey  
_ ** _Great. Don’t forget you also have to send out emails about the upcoming launch._

****_Tones_  
_on it  
_ _ttyl_

Toni groans and stretches. “J?”

“ _Sending pictures of the Vulture to Parker now.”_

“Aaron Davis?”

“ _Finding location…”_ Pings up in one corner of her HUD and Toni crosses her fingers that JARVIS finds him. Turning the rest of her HUD off, Toni gets to writing these emails.

It was still morning and about an hour after getting started, Rhodey leaves to get them lunch with Toni’s credit card from the nearby chinese place off campus. Toni sends her order and gets back to work. 

Parker Industries was launching a new water filter that could be installed anywhere and she had to get these emails sent to news sites about it. JARVIS turns on some music and Toni powers through it, only taking a break when Rhodey comes back with food. Two hours later, her HUD pings with a notification.

“ _Davis was just spotted entering a Safeway in East Somerville._ ” JARVIS reports, a camera feed image popping up in the corner.

Toni sighs and leans back in her chair, popping her neck and back. “Okay, send me the coordinates.” 

“You heading somewhere?” Rhodey glances up from her laptop.

“I’ll be back by dinner or something.” Toni digs through her dresser and finds another flight suit, janking her sweater over her head to slip on the silky, tight suit. “It should only be an hour.” 

The other girl hums. “Okay, but text me if anything goes wrong.” 

Toni gives her a quick hug and lets the Iron Spider suit crawl over her body, activating camo mode when as she does. 

“See ya’ later,” She tells Rhodey, slipping out the window and swinging away. 

It was nice to swing again, after the panic in Washington. Toni follows the path that JARVIS gives her and it updates as Davis moves into a parking lot that Toni flips into.

“ _Instant Kill Mode?”_ JARVIS asks and she shakes her head with a grin.

He’s putting his bags in his trunk when Toni webs his hand to the top of it. She rolls the static down her shoulders and lets herself be seen again, walking up to him as he scoots back.

“Remember me?” Toni demands, her voice molded to be slightly more… demonic if she was being honest, layered on top of her Iron Spider voice. “Yeah, I need information and you’re gonna give it to me _now_.” 

“‘Alight,” Davis hold his free hand up, leaning away. “Chill.”

“C’mon.” She growls.” 

Davis shifts onto his other leg. “What happened to your voice?” 

“What do you _mean_ ‘what happened to my voice’?”

“I heard you by the bridge,” He rolls his eyes, “I know what a little boy sounds like.” 

Toni is baffled. “I’m not a little boy! I’m a gir-woman!”

“I don’t care what you are.” Davis turns back to his groceries.

“I’m not a boy! I’m a woman!” Toni cries out. She groans. “C’mon man, I saved you and this is what I get?” When Davis gives her an unimpressed look, she continues. “Look, man, I need to know who’s selling these weapons. I need names! Now!” 

Davis slams the car hood down and Toni flinces slightly as the noise grates her ears. “You ain’t ever done this before, have you?”

“Deactivate interrogation mode.” She gives up. “Look, man,” Toni starts again, her voice back to a lower version of her own. “These men are selling weapons that are _crazy_ dangerous. They can’t just be out in the streets, look, if one of these could cut a bodega in half then-”

“Delmairs?” Davis looks up.

“Yeah, the best sandwiches in Queens.” Toni furrows her eyebrows.

“Sub Haven’s pretty good.”

“Nah, it’s too much bread.”

“I like bread.” 

“C’mon, man, please.” Toni pulls her final card. “What if it ended up in Brooklyn. By Visions Academy. Or near the police station.” 

Davis clenches his fist. “Man, that’s a low blow. You gonna stalk my nephew now or something?” 

“No,” Toni shakes her head, “But if these weapons are made here in Massachusetts and ended up in Queens, how much longer is it gonna take for it to branch out into other parts. Think about it, Davis.” 

“That’s a pretty ballsy move to play, Iron Spider.” He sighs. “I don’t want those weapons in that neighborhood.” 

“Who are these guys? What can you tell me about the Vulture? The guy with the wings?” 

“Other than he’s a psychopath dressed like a demon?” Davis purses his lips, “Nothin’. I don’t know who he is or where he is.”

TOni groans in frustration, leaning back onto Davis’ car. 

“I do know where he’s gonna be.” He mentions and Toni pops back off it. 

“Really?”

Davis brushes his chin. “Yea, this crazy dude I used to work with, supposed t’be doing’ a deal with him.”

Toni fist pumps with a grin. “Yes!” 

“Ey, ey, I didn’t tell you where, you don’t have a location.”

“Right, of course,” She sobers up, “YEah, where is it?” 

“Staten Island Ferry.” Davis nods. “Eleven this Saturday.” 

“Oh, okay.” She backs away and points at his webbed hands. “Hey, that’s gonna dissolve in two hours.”

“No, no, no, come fix this.” He gestures towards his hand.

“Two hours! You deserve that!” Toni turns around.

“I got ice cream in here, man.”

“You deserve that! You’re a criminal!” She waves a hand over her head, glancing back. “Bye, mister criminal!” 

As Toni’s swinging back to her dorm, camouflaged, she texts Parker and Harley.

**_Gang Gang_ **

**_Tones  
_ ** _Staten Island Ferry, 11AM, Saturday_

**_Harles  
_ ** _I dont even want to know how you got that so fast_

**_Petey  
_ ** _Good work._

She’s turning the corner of a building when she gets another text.

**_INTERWEBS_ **

**_Rhodey  
_ ** _You might wanna come back through the dorm entrance. There’s a Harverd dude asking to see you bc of PI stuff_

**_Stanky  
_ ** _sounds fun_

Toni swings into a small hideaway that she uses in moments just like these and digs around the bushes for a backpack she put there a few months ago. Opening it up, she slips on the AC/DC sweatshirt inside and shucks off her flight boots to pull on a pair of Vans. Toni tucks the boots into the waistband of her leggings and under her oversized sweatshirt, it doesn’t look like anything was there.

The walk to her dorm from there wasn’t long and she sent static throughout her hair to muse it up, and then ran her fingers through it to calm it back down so she didn’t have mask hair. She finds what Rhodey was talking about immediately outside of the dorm, a tall redheaded man insisting to speak to a Toni Stark while two built women opposed him. One of them reaches to grab his gesturing arm and he snaps back.

“Don’t touch me! I have pepper spray and I’m not afraid to use it!” 

“That’s enough, Charlie.” Toni waves the bodyguards away with a smile and turns to the man, taking in his casual white shirt and red hair. “What’s going on, Pepper?”  
The man groans and she smirks. “That’s not my name. You messed up numbers in your email you sent out and you were not picking up your phone.”

“You do know my provided phone number isn’t actually my number, right?” Toni cocks an eyebrow, bold for someone who was six inches shorter than the man in front of her.

“And you do know the whole point of my job is for me to work _with_ you, not for you, right?”

Toni studies him, a determined look in his green eyes, the way he stands confidently, but plays with his lips, the way his hair fell in a messy, but styled way over his forehead and his slightly crumpled shirt. Virgil wasn’t making an effort to look nice for her. He was the first person to ever call her out on her mistakes and the first person who wasn’t doing it for attention.

“Okay,” She turns around and scans into the dorms, looking over her shoulder to see Virgil standing awkwardly. “C’mon, we don’t have all day.”

Pepper trails her as they walk up the two flights of stairs to her room and she opens the door, gesturing for him to follow and thank God that the room was clean. Toni sits at her desk while DUM-E races over to the new face and beeps excitedly while Rhodey pulls an earbud out.

She quickly moves to pull him back. “Hey, DUM-E, back off or else you’re going to community college.” When he finally does, with a sad beep, she sits backwards in her desk chair. 

“Pepper, meet Rhodey. Rhodey, meet Pepper.” She introduces the two and Rhodey stands to shake his hand.

“Virgil Potts, nice to meet you.” 

Rhodey smiles at him. “Jane Rhodes, likewise. Don’t mind the nickname, it’s a package deal.” 

“Yea, it is.” Toni nods and points to the beanbag chair where Pepper sits and puts his black messenger bag down. She reaches back for her laptop and pulls up the emails again. “Okay, what were the numbers?” 

The two of them work together for a few hours, even going further than the planned launch and drafting speeches that were supposed to be written two weeks later. At six, Toni stretches and cracks her neck.

“You staying for dinner?” She asks and Pepper checks his phone.

“Sorry,” He shakes his head. “My roommate wants to go somewhere.”

“Next time, then.” Toni stands.

Pepper packs up his things zips his bag up, slinging it over a shoulder. “Next time.” 

“Do you want a car back to your campus?” The two of them leave the room and start down the stairs.

“My dorm’s only like, fifteen minutes away. I’ll be fine.”

“If you’re sure.” She shrugs and starts asking him about his life and childhood, things Toni already knew when she looked into him months ago. 

When the reach the dorm entrance, Toni waves goodbye to him as he leaves and makes sure that the body guards stationed in the dorms knew he worked for Parker Industries and was allowed to visit.

“He seems like a cool guy.” Rhodey comments that night when she’s in bed and Toni’s working on Iron Spider upgrades. 

“Who, Pepper?” Toni pulls up the blueprints for putting rocket launchers in her suit. “Yeah, he’s really,” She thinks for the right word. “Bold. First person to correct me, you know.”

“I correct you all the time.”

She scoffs. “That’s different.”

“Well, I always do it. In fact, imma do it right now. You’re not putting rocket launchers in your suit.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.” Toni shoots back, but a fond smile stays on her face as she works through the night.

\-----

Toni doesn’t mention she’s going home for the weekend and instead unlocks the Mercedes she has parked outside. JARVIS hooks up to the system quickly as she packs her bag and she slides into the driver’s seat. It’s eight AM when she leaves MIT and she reaches Staten Island five from eleven, making perfect time.

“JARVIS, how’s it lookin’?” Toni asks, hopping out of the car and stretching. She had a giant sweatshirt over her flight suit that reached down to her thighs.

“ _Parker is not here yet. Your ticket has been bought and sent to your phone. Radio Silence Protocol is enabled._ ” He rattles off in her ear as she locks up the car.

Adjusting her wrist attachments, she walks towards the entrance for the ferry and gets her ticket checked. The water sloshes underneath her as she crosses the ramp to reach the boat and Toni shivers as the salty air brushes her face.

“J, can you get me a nose job?” She walks up the spiral staircase and sits down in a hard chair near the windows.

“ _James Bond Protocall activated._ ” Her HUD beeps momentarily as a face cast is projected over her nose so she wouldn’t be identified by security cameras.

Once the cabin is full of people, the ferry blares out twice and leaves it’s dock, cruising out towards New York. A few moments later, a red a blue flash zips by her window and she can hear the familiar webbing noise.

“What’s going on?” Toni asked as she puts headphones on and JARVIS connects to nearby cameras, broadcasting it to the left of her HUD.

JARVIS identifies some of the faces, a square freezing their faces and pulling the image to another corner before it continues running again. “ _That’s Herman Schultz from the bridge incident. The man next to him is not in my criminal database._ ” 

Toni studies the other man. Something about him seemed… just in his face… “Are we sure we don’t know this guy, J? I feel like I’ve seen him before.”

“ _We never have, Boss._ ” A notification pings up in the right corner of the HUD. “ _Incoming phone call from Harley Keener._ ”

“I can’t talk right now,” Toni absentmindedly says, “I’ll call him back. Keep an eye on this guy, okay? We can’t let anyone get away this time.”

There’s active movement in one of the other frames and asks JARVIS to enlarge it. “Who’s the guy on the left?” 

“ _Mac Gargan. Extensive criminal record, including homicide. Would you like me to activate Instant Kill?_ ”

“No- J, stop it with the Instant Kill.”

Schultz approaches Gargan and tells him something in a low voice that J picks up. “ _~White pickup truck.~_ ”

Toni furrows her eyebrows “J?” 

“ _Already scanning the ferry for a white pickup truck._ ” After a moment, later, the feed she was watching switches out for one of the cars parked at the bottom of the ferry, a white pickup truck.

“What’s inside?” She wonders and squints as she sees something familiar in the corner of the frame. “Is that Droney?”

“ _It would seem so. The surveillance cameras on the ferry cannot scan the truck, but Droney is currently doing it for us._ ”

“What’s he seeing, J?”

Her AI only hesitates for a moment before patching her an image of the scans, showing the weapons inside. 

“ _~Oh, this is too perfect. I got the weapons, buyers, and sellers all in one place.~_ ” JARVIS picks up from the camera Spider-Man was nearby. Something on his person beeps and Spider-Man gives a small groan. “ _~No, no, no, don’t answer- hey, Harles… I’m actually busy right now… uh huh… I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m definitely at that meeting right now… Um, finances?~”_

The ferry horn blares through.

“ _~I’m at, um, band practice, yeah… Midtown’s band, gotta support the kids, you know… I don’t hate kids… Anyways, babe, I’m kinda in the middle of something… Uh, gotta go, love you, Karen, end call.~_ ”

“Oof, that’s harsh,” Toni says under her breath and watches as he flips down to the lower deck. 

“ _~I’ll take that! Yoink!~_ ”

“ _Are you going to help him?_ ” JARVIS questions as he webs Gargan and another man together. Schultz comes up behind him with a sparking gauntlet of some sort but Spider-Man just ducks and dodges. 

Toni shifts in the unforgiving chair. “I’m just back up. He has the situation handled right now.” She says as FBI agents pop out of nowhere and the situation was very much not handled. “What, the FBI?” 

“ _The FBI is the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”_ JARVIS quips and she groans.

“I know what the FBI means, J, but what are they doing here?” 

JARVIS is about to respond, but he’s cut off by a screeching sound that Toni can hear in person, not just through the cameras. Out of nowhere, the Vulture barrels towards Spider-Man as the latter is yelling for the FBI agents to _“~MOVE!~”_

“Is that…” Toni whispers and JARVIS tags the Vulture’s face as the same man Schlutz was with before, the one who looked familiar to her. 

Gunshots ring out as the agents shoot and Spider-Man is knocked into the water. On her deck, people start panicking.

“ _Are you going to help?_ ”

Toni grits her teeth as she jumps up, “A little bit.” She takes a deep breath. “Hey! We gotta keep calm! C’mon, guys! It’s Spider-Man! He’ll never let anything hurt us!” Toni adds on with a mental eyeroll.

That seems to calm down some people, although some of the braver ones are glued to the windows with their phones. There’s a loud explosion and the ferry is knocked around, causing an older man to fall out of his seat. Toni rushes over and gently helps him back into the chair, stabilized by one hand sticking to the shaking floor.

“Excelsior.” The man says softly and Toni gives him a tight smile.

Standing back up again, Toni catches glance of Spider-Man using his Tazer Webs (modeled after yours truly) and a wave of dread goes through her as-

_~MOVEMOVELASERLASERMOVERMOVERLASERLASERMOVEMO~_

“EVERYONE GET TO THE SIDES!” Toni screams and she thanks the gods that many listen and the rest are knocked to the sides by the wild shaking. Her eyes widen as she catches sight of a young girl clutching onto the armrest of the chair in the middle of the desk. Toni leaps into the air, wrapping the girl in her arms as she slams into the metel wall of the ferry, the air knocked out of her with the girl safely tucked into her chest.

“How dare you!” A woman shrieks, yanking the little girl out of Toni grasp. “You disgusting girl! How dare you touch my daughter-”

She’s interrupted by the winning groan of the ferry being cut in half by a laser, right where the girl was. 

“You’re welcome.” Toni spits out to the wide-eyed mother and she turns to help another young child stand back up. “J, what happened?” 

“ _A laser cut through the ferry into two._ ” 

“Thank you for your input.” Toni bites out. “Gimme X-rays.”

A moment later, Toni is faced with the structure of the ferry and a person swinging around it, throwing out webs every which way, but hitting the key points that JARVIS marked. Spider-Man swings through into their deck and webs a few more stable points and breathes out, hands on his thighs. 

“ _Only ninety-eight percent successful._ ”  
Tony's eyes widen as the words process and the people around her start cheering, jumping up and down on the hull. Before them, the webs protest and snap, only a few at first and them all at once. JARVIS shows her the lives of the cargo hold flooding and Toni rushes to the empty stairwell as Spider-Man races to web the ship together. 

“Okay,” Toni breathes out, “J, gimme my rocket launchers. Modify them into Project Turbo.”

“ _Are you sure?_ ”

“Do it, JAR.” Toni makes her decision. All at once, the air is knocked out of her as the nanites fly off her body and into the air. She collapses onto the steps, breathing heavily as her HUD changes to show small blaster drones attaching to the sides of the ferry. Blue static and bridges of electricity pops around her without control.

“ _Power is at fifty-nine percent. Do you want to continue?”_

Her tongue feels heavy in her mouth so she nods, panting. She sucks in a deep breath. “Full power. I don’t care.” 

“ _Boss-”_

 _“_ JARVIS, do it! Reroute everything to power it. Weld the ship together, too.” 

The last thing Toni remembers seeing are the drone scans in her HUD lighting up with energy and a weightless feeling in her bones before it all comes crashing heavily down on her. 

\-----

The first thing Toni does when she wakes up is twist over and throws up to the left.

“Ya’ know, that’s real freaky.” Someone drawls and Toni blinks her eyes open to find Harley sitting in the chair next to the bed she was in. The hospital bed she was in, in the hospital room with the lights dimmed down.

“Everytime you wake up sick, ya’ always know where to upchuck. Wild.” He looks tired, his blond hair a mess on his head and wearing a worn shirt that fell off one sholder.

“Hi, Harles.” Toni rasps out, sinking back into the cushions and closing her eyes. She can sense the man stand and check her vitals (as if he wasn’t already monitoring them) and slips a straw past her lips.

“Drink up, baby girl. You ain’t looking so fresh. Now, I gotta leave and you get to be grounded.” 

“Whattt,” Toni whines, cracking an eye open. “Why am I grounded?” 

“Because you hacked into a million dollar suit to sneak behind our backs.” Parker says as he walks into the room. Harley gives him a kiss with a whisper of “Be nice” and leaves the two of them alone.

Toni fidgets with the white sheets. “Um, I’m sorry. But technically, it was already there for me, I didn’t hack anything.” 

“Nope, shush.” Parker towers over her next to the bed. He picks up the tablet that Harley left behind. “Do you know what you did?” 

She racks her brain. “No?” 

Parker’s brown eyes glint in the tablet’s lights as he searches her face. “You managed to expel so much electricity in your body that your homeostasis was thrown off. All of it. One moment you hand fever, the next you had a hypothermia and it was real bad because we can’t thermulate. All because of your little stunt.” 

“Did it work?” Toni can’t help but ask.

Her cousin scoffs. “Yeah, it worked. But at what expense!” 

“At least it worked.” She says under her breath and Parker lets out a frustrated groan, starting to pace. 

“Toni, you can’t keep doing this!”

“What, be a hero?” Toni shoots back.

“You know what!” Parker swivels towards her. “Yeah, actually!”

Toni sits up and ignores the protesting in her body. “You can’t take that away from me!” 

“Yeah, I can! Iron Spider is a _privilege_ , not a right!” He throws his hands up. “You understand that, right?” 

“I do, but-” 

“No ‘buts’, Toni. First and foremost, you are a _student_. You don’t get to have weekend excursions to Washington D.C. or New York just to save lives! You should be focusing on school!” 

“I am!” Toni insists and Parker gives her an unbelieving laugh.

“You don’t get it, do you?” He says finally, softly and tense.

She fumbles for something to say and Parker shakes his head. “Give me the suit.” 

“What!” Toni cries out. “Why?” _There’s no way… he can’t..._

“Because you don’t understand limits, Toni!” He runs a hand through his hair. “If you don’t understand why your life as Toni Stark is more important that Iron Spider, then I’m taking the suit back.” 

“But-” 

“Give it to me.” Parker tells her, his voice leaving no room for discussion. 

Biting her lip, she gathers as much static as she can and slides the attachments off her wrists, leading down to get her ankles and stretching back to the one on her spine. Once they were all together, Toni sends some power though them and they meld together to form a textbook shaped chunk of gold-titanium alloy.

With a nod, Parker picks it off her lap and grabs her glasses off of the nightstand.

“How long?” Toni finds herself asking.

“Forever.” He says with finidality.

“What am I now?” She whispers, looking down at her hands.

“If you’re nothing with the suit, then you shouldn’t have it. God,” He huffs, “I sound like my dad. Harley’s making pasta tonight.”

She nods as Parker leaves the room but Toni’s in a car driving back to MIT twenty minutes later. 

\-----

Toni throws herself into her work the moment she gets back. The week passes in a frenzy, between going to classes, meetings with Pepper, and pulling late nights to work on new projects.

Rhodey and Pepper watch, but they don’t say anything.

She tells herself that it’s a good thing Iron Spider is gone. Now Toni has time to focus on being Toni Stark, child prodigy and working towards Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering. Now she has time to be… herself. She picks up hobbies for a day or two, the longest being Spanish, which she had been meaning to learn for a while now. Toni’s fluent within four days and she moves on. 

Harley and Parker text her a few times and she responds in clipped messages, proper punctuation and all. She misses JARVIS.

It’s Friday when Toni runs into Maya again on campus.

The other girl has her hair pulled up, her concealer doing little to cover the dark circles under her eyes, but Maya still smiles as she waves Toni over. “How are you? It’s been a while.”

“Only two weeks,” Toni shifts from foot to foot. “Anyways, I’ve been working a lot. You?” 

Maya shrugs. “I’ve been doing the same, yeah. I’m really digging the no-glasses look-”

“I, uh... I just wanted to apologize about the whole Washington thing,” Toni blurts out, looking down at her Vans. “I really”

“It’s fine.” She interrupts. “Last week was the funnest time I’ve had in college, but then I almost died.”

“No, I just mean that… it wasn’t cool that I wasn’t there, especially…” Toni takes a deep breath. _Am I really going to do this? I mean, I have nothing to lose…_ “Because… I like you.”

“I know.”

Toni’s head whips to the side, staring at Maya’s face with wide eyes. “You do?”

She chuckles. “You’re terrible at keeping secrets.”

_Well, no one knows I’m Iron Spider yet. Scratch that, no one knows I’m Iron Spider._

“You’d be surprised.” Toni smiles.

There’s an awkward pause that’s broken by Toni’s phone buzzing with a notification for her next class.

She gives Maya an apologetic look. “I got to get to class. I’d say we should hang out, but I’m gonna be in working for…” Toni thinks.

“Ever?” Maya finishes for her and she nods.

“Yeah, not gonna lie. You probably have a date for the gala already, too, so-”

“Actually,” The other girl laughs, brushing loose hairs out of her face and looking to the side at the students passing by. “I was so busy planning it I never really got around to that part, so…”

_~ASKHERASKHERASKHERASKHERAS~_

_I AM OMG SHUT UP!_

“Um, do you want to go with me?” 

A breathtaking smile breaks across Maya’s face. “Yeah, sure.”

“Really?” Toni blinks. “I mean, great! Cool.”

“Cool.” Maya repeats.

Toni’s phone beeps again. Class is starting. “I’m going that way.” She gestures down the path.

Maya nods and waves goodbye. She turns and starts walking, ignoring the pinpricks of Maya’s eyes on her back as she fistpumps into the air. 

_YES!_

\-----

That evening and the next morning, Toni and Maya text, going over the pickup plan for Saturday evening until it’s finalized. Flopping into her desk chair, she send off a message to an unnamed number and responds to the email MJ sent her way.

At around lunch, Rhodey packs her stuff away and muses up Toni’s hair as she leaves the dorm. She was heading over to her friend’s apartment to get ready for the gala, having Toni’s extra ticket.

“See you later!” Rhodey calls out and Toni gives her a confirming hum, typing away.

When her phone rings with an alarm at one, Toni finishes what she’s doing and heads to the showers, pulling out all the expensive products Harley randomly gives her. When Toni’s hair and skin feels as soft as silk, she finally steps out. Once Toni’s dry, she changes into a pair of loose sweatpants and a button up shirt, heading back to her dorm.

_~DangerDANGERDangerDANGERDangerDANGERDan~_

“I’m not even gonna ask how you got here.” Toni sighs as she pushes the door open.

Her desk chair and a head of red waves swivel around, Toni’s laptop perch in her crossed lap.

“A hearing aid that picks up sound waves and projects them onto the sensitive parts of the neck?” A perfect eyebrow arches. “That’s ambitious.”

Toni sets her caddy down by her closet and runs her towel through her hair. “Doesn’t mean I can’t do it, though.” She hangs her towel up and wraps her hair into a messy bun. “And stop hacking into my stuff.”

Natasha shrugs. “Give Clint a pair when you do. And I can’t help it, I mean, it was _right here_.” The assassin sets the laptop back down and stands, dressed leisurely in leggings and a leather jacket with no makeup, as if she didn’t have knives hidden in her boots and a gun in her waistband. Which Toni’s been meaning to say… 

“Shoes off.” Toni points down at them. “Rhodey has this rule of no shoes unless we’re leaving for someplace. 

“Really?” Natasha smirks and bends down to unlace them faster than a normal person ever could. 

_She probably knows a hundred ways to kill someone with shoelaces._ Toni sits down on her bed.

When Natasha’s done, she puts them on the desk and straightens up. “Okay,” She claps her hands, “Let’s get to business.” 

“It’s so early, though.” Toni protests. “I thought you were coming later, too.” 

“Well, I was already nearby because Parker’s clearing out one of the factories over here and I had to supervise it.”

Toni furrows her eyebrows. “He his?” _Well, it’s not like i’ve been up to date on Parker stuff recently._

“Yeah. Anyways, I was in Korea last week,” Natasha moves to the duffle bag on Rhodey’s bed, a garment bag laying next to it. “And I found these face masks I wanted to try out.” She turns around with a small tub in her hand and Toni squints.

“Is that… gold?” 

The woman waves her off. “Don’t worry about it. Now,” She settles down next to Toni on the bed. “Tell me about this Maya girl.” 

Toni smiles as Natasha opens up the tub, a faint floral smell accompanying it. “She’s amazing. I have a few classes with her and she’s just the nicest person I’ve ever met.” Her eyes flutter shut as Natasha smears the mask on her face, evenly spreading it. “Don’t pretend like you haven't done a complete background check on her, though.” 

“What?” She fake gasps and Toni giggles. “I would never!” 

They settle into a comfortable silence as Natasha appies the mask on her face as well. “Now,” She closes the lid. “Time to do your nails.” 

Toni makes a face. “I thought we were getting me into the dress and maybe doing something with my hair and that’s it.” 

“Nope!” Nat pops the P. The mask looks near profesional on her face, the gold flecks catching the light and bringing her green eyes into focus. “You asked me to help you get ready, so this is what you get.” 

“I asked you to bring me a black tie dress,” She rolls her eyes with a smile. “You’d think I’m always asking for clothes, with the amount you buy me.” 

“Technically, it’s with Peter’s credit card.” She points out.

Toni looks over to her overflowing closet. “Huh.” 

Nat walks to the other side of the room to bring the duffle bag over, setting it besides the bed. She riffles through it before coming up with a small pink cosmetic bag, unzipping it and pouring the contents onto the bed. There were nail files and multiple shades of polish, as well as a pack of fake nails.

“Long nails or do you want to keep them short?” Natasha asks, pulling one of Toni’s rough hands into her lap, examining them.

She flushes. Her nails were not that pretty, the only treatment she did to them was cut them short enough that they didn’t get in the way, but not down to the quick. “Short, definitely. Long nails are terrifying.” 

Natasha smirks and makes a claw with her free hand, showing off her perfect nails that were slightly farther than the tips of her fingers, still to long by Toni’s standards. “Rawr.” 

“Please never do that again.” Toni tells her.

Grabbing a file, the woman gets to work, shaping Toni's nails until they were in uniform shape. The whole time she was chatting about what’s been going on at the tower, how Barnes and Rogers were doing, not once mentioning the disappearance of Iron Spider. What did Toni do to deserve her?

As Natasha’s fingers run over the callouses on Toni’s hand, she finds herself slipping to a half-asleep trance as her even voice lulls her. She says something and Toni lifts her heavy head, furrowing her eyebrows.

“I’m sorry, what?” 

Natasha snickers. “I asked what color you wanted on your nails.” 

“Um,” Toni looks down at her options. “What color’s the dress?” 

“Black.” 

“Then white,” She decides. “It’d contrast, right?” 

The woman nods. “You’re right.” She uncaps the polish as Toni’s hand rests on her thigh, the smell stinging her nose. “This is relaxing, right?” 

Toni nods. “Yeah.” 

“Good.” 

She squints suspiciously at the Avenger across from her but doesn't say anything. While Natasha paints on hand, Toni leans over to pick her tablet off her night stand, opening Netflix to play an old episode of NCIS. Natasha snickered as she moves onto Toni’s left hand. 

“Don’t laugh,” Toni scolds playfully, “Not everyone can be a super talented agent assassin like you, Nat.” 

“Agent Assassin Avenger. Say that three times fast.” 

She laughs. “ I could never.” 

Nat finishes brushing over her last finger and caps the polish. “Done.”

“Don’t they need another layer?” Toni brings her nails near her face, perfect white ovals.

“Not with this polish.” She packs the nail stuff away. “And it dries fast, too.” She puts the bag on top of the duffle bag and scoots back into Toni’s pillows. Toni follows with a gleeful smile, curing up into the woman side with the table on her lap, feeling the press of muscle around her. 

Half way through the episode, Natasha told her that they had to wash the face mask off and they quickly made their way to and from the bathrooms. After that, Toni let Nat assault her face with a number of face care products, her only saving grace being that they were all unscented.

“This feels weird.” Toni says as they settle back into their earlier position. She scrunches her face up and feels the tightness in her face, despite it now being as soft as a face could possibly be.

Nat laughs from above her. “That’s what good skin should feel like.” 

“Ew. I already have perfect skin, I don’t need this.” 

“Skin is important, Tones, especially the face. It’s the perfect template for anything, so you have to keep it in good shape.” The woman explains.

“Or a weapon,” Toni points out. “But you’ve probably never killed someone with your face before.” Natasha doesn’t respond and she twists her body to peer up at her. “Right?” 

“I can neither confirm nor deny.” She says finally. 

_Huh._ Toni turns back to the show and they stop talking. 

Two episodes later, Natasha pulls Toni off the bed and laughs as she stumbles slightly.

“C’mon, let’s dance.” She proposes and Toni shakes her head with a smile, giving in.

Natasha brings her phone out and starts playing some music, setting it down on Toni’s desk as she grabs the girl in her arms and walks her through the steps of a slow dance.

Toni giggles as she trips over her feet. “Nat, I can’t do this! I’m so bad!” 

“It’s like fighting, just a series of steps.” Natasha spins her out, and then back in. “See, left foot, right foot, left, right, one, two, three, four.” 

“Yeah, maybe for you.” She looks down at their feet and tries to be in sync with Natasha’s but the woman tilts her face up.

“Don’t overthink it. Just move, you’ll know what to do.” 

Toni bites her lip and tries to flow with the music and Natasha’s guiding arms.

_One, two, three, four, two, two, three, fout, three, two, three, four, four, two, three, four-_

Nat’s eyes crinkle at the corners. “There you go, you got it! Okay, from the top now, one, two, three, four.” 

They finally move in time, circling around the dorm room with even steps and ends with Toni spinning being wrapped back into Natasha’s arms. DUM-E beeps excitedly from his corner and he scoots out to spin and lift his arm.

“Beautiful!” Toni cooed, reaching out to tap his arm. He squeals happily and slides into another corner of the room.

Natasha chuckles from behind her. “That wasn’t so bad, was it? You got the idea.” 

Toni rolls her eyes, facing the other woman. “Yeah, just a lot of steps and turns. Easy.” 

The woman walks over to the bed and brings the duffle bag to the top of it. “Make-up time, you ready?” 

She sits down on the bed where Nat was with a frown. “But the gala’s at seven, that’s in like, four hours.” 

“Yeah, and there’s a lot to do before then.” Nat points out. She digs through the duffle bag and comes out with a multitude of small pouches.

“Just don’t make me look crazy.” Toni grumbles as the music changes.

Natasha smirks, uncapping a small bottle. “No promises.” 

She massages the product into Toni’s face. “This is a primer, so it’ll blur out your pores and help the make-up stay on longer.” As she finishes and puts it away, she grabs another bottle and a sponge, continuing to explain as Toni’s eyes flutter shut.

“Light coverage foundation, because your skin is already basically perfect.” A small tube. “Concealer to cover up your dark circles and highlight the face. You need to sleep more, Toni.” A small container. “Setting powder to make sure nothing creases.”

The product feels dusty on Toni’s face and she has to resist the urge to sneeze.

“Now,” A tube with a weird brush thing. “I’m just going to tint your brows with this gel because there’s really not much to do with them.” A three pan pallete. “This is bronzer and contour to help define your face.” The brush runs along the perimeter of her face and jawline until Natasha’s happy with the results. “Blush,” She adds a small amount to Toni’s cheeks and nose, before grabbing a metallic case from the bag. “And highlighter.” Nat brushes it everywhere, on her cheekbones, nose, cupids bow, chin, and forehead. 

Toni hears her step back and she opens her eyes. “Can I see it now?” 

“Nope.” The woman moves towards the bag again, finding a large palette with an “M” on it. “Still have a few more things to do. This is the longest part, though.” 

“How long has it been already?” Toni asks, frowning. 

“About forty-five minutes.” Nat tells her as she grabs a few small fluffy brushes.

Toni blinks. “What? No, it’s been like, twenty.” 

“Nah, longer than that.” She tilts Toni’s face up and asks her to close her eyes, moving the brush over her lids once she does. “Time slips by, huh?” 

“I guess.”

From there, the brushes bleed into one another until Toni can’t tell which is which. Nat’s skilled fingers cause them to dance on the corners of her eyes and high up to the brow bone. 

“Open your eyes and follow my finger.” Nat says and Toni complies until her eyes are half open. “I’m putting on a bit of eyeliner, so don’t flinch.” She shakes a small black pen and reaches out, a wet feeling coating her lashline a moment later.

Toni does her best and doesn’t flinch, besides the occasional eye twitch and after a few minutes, Natasha pulls away. 

“Not much longer now.” She takes small brush and dips into the highlighter, patting it into the inner corners of her eyes. “Okay, look up.” Natasha grabs an intimidating looking contraption. “Don’t move and you’ll be fine.” 

Nat squeezes her lashes with the thing and a minute later she done with both eyes. “Mascara time.” She warns and that’s all Toni get’s before a brush combs through them, making her lashes feel wet and heavy. 

“Now are we done?” Toni asks after being told not to blink for a few moments. 

Natasha pulls a pink tube out from the bag. “Almost, I promise. Part your lips.” She paints over them and once she’s done, Toni rubs them together. “That was a lip stain, so it’s going to stay on for a few minutes. Setting spray is all that’s left.” She grabs a large bottle and sprays it all over Toni’s face. “Now you can look.”

Toni stands and stretches out her legs, walking over to the mirror Rhodey had hung up by the door. She looked… like herself, but not. This Toni had wide eyes, framed by pink-ish brown shadows and a small cat eye. Glitter and shine danced on the high points of her face, contrashing the contour. The pink on her cheeks and lips brought color back into it all. Despite having so much product on her face, Toni looks flawless and it was like nothing was there at all. Except that is was. 

“Thank you, Natasha.” Toni breathes out. “This looks perfect.” 

“I guess I’m just that talented.” The woman says nonchalantly and when Toni turns around, she’s standing there with a plugged in hot iron.

Toni groans. “Really?” 

“Yes, really.” Natasha confirms. “C’mon.” 

“How’d it heat up so fast?” Toni asks as she slides into her desk chair. 

Natasha pulls her hair out of it’s bun and starts running a brush through it until it hangs waved to her shoulders. “S.H.I.E.L.D. issue. Don’t know why they’re making hair products, but they’re good on missions.” She walks over the bag and pulls out a purple bottle, spraying it through parts on Toni’s hair.

“That’s interesting.” 

They sink into silence as Natasha pins up different sections and Toni grabs her phone, switching on some Post Malone. A few moments later, Natasha picks the iron and Toni can feel the heat against the back of her neck as she starts to straightens her hair. After a while, Natasha starts talking again, from what mission she was on in Korea to the sushi she ate yesterday. In turn, Toni talks about her classes and reports she’s been writing, onto the tech she’s been figuring out. After a while, all of Toni’s hair falls straight and Natasha combs through it. 

“Do you want to keep it like this or do something?” 

Toni thinks for a moment. “Something with it.” 

Natasha nods and runs her fingers through her hair, from the front to back. “Okay.” 

She pulls a few front pieces out and combs back the top half of the rest, or at least Toni thinks, from the tugging on her head. Natasha reaches over to the bag she put on her desk and snags a small rubber band, tying up the small portion. From there, she fiddles around with the half-ponytail with a few more rubber bands and bobby pins until she’s happy with it and combs through the remaining bottom half and front pieces.

“Hairspray.” Natasha says and Toni closes her eyes as the mist falls around her. “Done.” 

Toni walks over to the mirror again. Her hair was half pulled up like she thought and the ponytail was wrapped into a small bun, messy but professional. 

“Thanks, Nat.” 

“No problem.” The woman tells her. “Now, we have an hour and a half until we have to leave, so,” She walks over to the garment bag on Rhodey’s bed and picks it up, pushing it into Toni’s arms. “You put this on and,” Nat grabs yet another small bag, this time blue, from the duffle bag, “Do this part yourself. I’ll be out in the hallway.” 

Toni nods as she leaves the room and fully closes the blinds, opening the blue bag first. Inside was a bottle of shimmering lotion and some pasties. She sighs and gets to it, stripping and rubbing the lotion all over herself until she was glowing to the gods. Once she has the pasties and underwear on, she opens the garment bag and pulls out the dress. It was the one Parker got for her last year, a long A-line black dress with a deep, triangular sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps. Toni wiggles into the dress and zips in on, the slit falling open to reveal her leg up to the thigh. 

The best part, though? It had pockets.

Toni opens the door and Natasha over-dramatically gasps. “You’re so beautiful!” 

She rolls her eyes. “Get in here.” 

Natasha snickers and bends down next to the duffle bag, pulling out a small box and shoe bag. “These are from my own personal collection, so don’t lose them, okay?” She hands the box to Toni and she opens it, eyes widening when she sees the earrings..

“Nat, I can’t wear these.” And she couldn’t. They were perfect hanging pendants, both diamonds.

“It’s not like I'm wearing them anytime soon.” Nat brushes off. “Put them on.” 

Biting her lip, Toni removes the simple black studs she had and puts the diamond earrings on, feeling the pull of them. They were just short enough to hang slightly above her shoulders. 

“Thank you, Natasha.” She says, looking up at the smiling woman.

“Don’t worry. Now,” Nat hold out the shoe bag. “Put these on, grab whatever you need, and we have to get going. You’re supposed to be at Maya’s place at six thirty.” 

“I never told you that.” Toni rolls her eyes as she pulls the platform black pumps out of the bag and bends over to slip them on. When she comes back up, the dress was now the perfect length, slightly brushing the ground and she was almost as tall as Nat, now. 

Natasha laughs and reaches over with a wipe, rubbing it over her lips and bringing forth another small tube, painting the sticky gloss on. “Now we’re ready to go. Oh! I want a picture.” 

“You’re just going to send them to Harley and Parker.” Toni whines, but poses as Nat whips her phone out. 

“Per-fect. Okay, let’s go.” 

Toni grabs her phone and catches the lip gloss Nat tosses to her, slipping them both into her pocket. Natasha packs up her stuff and zips up the duffle bag, slinging it over her shoulders and the door locks as the two of them leave the dorm. From there, they side into the black Audi Natasha had driven from the airport and Toni guides her to Maya’s house. 

Nat slides into park and turns to Toni. “What’s the game plan?” 

Toni thinks. “Open the door for her.”

“Mm-hmm.” 

“Tell her she looks nice, but don’t be creepy.” 

“Don’t want that.” 

“And when we’re dancing, don’t be weird.” 

“Perfect.” Natasha smiles. “Now,” She reaches into the back seat and pulls out a clear box that has a white corsage in it. “Don’t forget this.” 

Toni frowns down at it. “Aren’t corsages like a prom or homecoming thing?” 

Nat shrugs. “She was talking to a friend about wanting one.” 

She sighs. “You’ve gotta stop stalking people, Nat.” 

“Shoo, then.” Natasha laughs and Toni slips out of the car, making sure she’s not stepping on her dress. 

“Bye, Nat.” 

“Bye, Tones.” 

Taking a deep breath, Toni turns and walks up the steps to Maya’s house, ringing the doorbell with her heart beating in her chest. From behind the door, Toni can hearsome walking around with steps too heavy to be Maya’s.

As the door opens, Toni plasters a smile on her face only for it to freeze as she registers the man in front of her.

_What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck_

“You must be Toni.” The Vulture says, smiling warmly. 

“Ye-yeah.” Toni stammers. 

“I’m Maya’s dad,” he continues, putting his hand out. “Aldrich Killian, at your service.” 

WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

Toni shakes his hand, eyes not leaving his face, and he chuckles. “Hell of a grip. Come on in here,” He steps away from the door. “Come on.” 

Toni follows him to the kitchen, her heels clipping on the wood floor. It’s only then does she realize he’s dressed to the nines, too, for the gala. In the kitchen, Maya’s mother, Ellen, looks up.

“Hi, Toni, you look beautiful.” 

“You, too.” Toni tightly smiles back. “I love the green.” 

Ellen laughs and spins in her forest green gown. “Thanks, sweetie.” She stands and walks toward the hallway. “I’m gonna go get Maya.” 

Toni nods andturns to find Killian sharpening his kitchen knives. “You alright, TOni?” 

“Yeah.” She breathes out. 

“Because you’re looking a little pale there.” He comments. “You want something to drink? Like a bourbon or scotch, or something like that?”

“I’m not old enough to drink.” 

Killian laughs, putting the knife away. “That’s the right answer.” His eyes catch on something behind her. “Wow, wow, wow. Don’t you look beautiful.”

Toni spins around on her heels as Maya laughs and Toni’s mouth falls open as she catches sight of the older girl. 

“Please don’t embarrass me, Dad.” Maya was saying and Toni forgets about the Vulture behind her for a moment.

“Maya, you look amazing.” Toni breaths out.

The girl beams and spins around in her red satin mermaid dress, causing the bottom to flare out. The top was off shouldered and her neck was offset by a sparkling gold necklace, matching the gold ear climbers adorning her ears under her pulled up hair. 

“Thanks, Toni.” She gestures to the box in her hands. “Is that a corsage?” 

“Uh,” Toni looks down at it and takes a step forward. “Um, yeah, it is. I know it’s usually like, a prom thing but-” 

“No, no,” Maya smiles at her, “I love it.” 

Toni flushes and opens the box, closing the gap between the two of them. As she maneuvers the white corsage around Maya’s rings, she realizes how the height difference between them had shortened between the two of them.

Maya must notice it too because she comments on it. “Platform heels?” She asks.

Toni nervously laughs. “Yeah, five inches. Gotta work with what I got, you know?” 

“Yeah.” Maya grins. “Thanks for this, by the way.” She raises her corsage.

“It’s no problem.” Toni waves off.

Killian clears his throat behind her and Toni finds herself spinning around again. 

“Well, we should get this show on the road. Liz, you have to be there on time.” 

Ellen protests. “No! We have to get pictures first!” She grabs her phone off the counter top and gestures for the two of them to stand closer together. “Just a few, don’t worry.” 

Toni does her best to make sure she’s smiling and not grimacing as she slips an arm around Maya's waist an Ellen snaps a few from different angles.

“Cute! Okay, now we can go.” 

The four of them make their way out of the house after Maya and Ellen grab their clutches (“Sucks to be you, Maya, my dress has pockets.” “Toni, you don’t have to flex on me like this.”), all while Toni was keeping a careful eye on Killian.

Toni opens Maya’s door and walks to the other side to slip in and they were off.

“So, Toni, what do you study?” Killian asks after a few minutes, making eye contact with Toni in the mirror. 

“Um, Electrical Engineering, sir.” Toni tells him.

“Dad, don’t grill her.”

He chuckles. “What am I supposed to do, sweetie, it’s not everyday that I have the Parker Princess in my presence.” He laughs again. “Say that five times fast.” 

Ellen shakes her head with a smile. “About that, Toni, what do you do at Parker Industries?”

“I’m just an intern.” Toni replies reflectively, “But I work more with R-and-D than Parker himself.” 

“I guess Spider-Man is always busy saving the world, huh?” Killian asks.

Toni opens her mouth to retort, but Maya beats her to it. 

“She works with Iron Spider, too.” Maya pipes up. “Toni make her updates.” 

‘Where did you hear that?” Toni laughs nervously, running her hands over the fabric of her dress.

Maya shrugs. “From that picture of your lab you posted while we were in D.C. There were Iron Spider blasters on your lab table.” 

Killian makes a turn onto another street. “Oh, you were on the D.C. trip?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Maya leans over to show her a picture of the two of them. “Aww.” 

“I’ve seen you around, right?” Killian brings up. “I mean... Somewhere. We’ve, uh, have we ever? Because even the voice…”

Toni’s brain scrambles. “I was, um, at Maya’s party a few weeks ago.” 

Maya scoffs. “Yeah, for like two seconds before you disappeared.” 

“I didn’t disappear.” 

“You disappeared in D.C., too, Toni.” 

Toni can feel Killian’s eyes bore into her face. “Why’d you disappear in D.C.?”  
“Oh, there was an, um, meeting I had to go to in New York.” Toni tells him. “But it’s awful what happened with the bombing.” 

“I bet it’s a good thing your friend Iron Spider showed up, huh?” 

“Yeah,” Toni nods and ignores the way Maya’s fingers freeze from where they were typing on her phone. “Good woman, Iron Spider.” 

Ellen takes over the conversation from there and a few minutes later, they were pulling up outside of the hall where the gala was being held. There were many people there already, dressed in gowns and suits.

“Why don’t you two head down,” Killian suguests, “And Toni and I will find a parking spot and meet you inside.” 

Maya meets her eye and Toni nods. “Don’t worry, I’ll see you inside.”

The mother and daughter pair leave the car and Killian starts driving again, bee lining towards an empty spot in the street outside the hall. 

“Does she know?” Killian speaks up in the silence.

Toni steels her nerves. “Know what?”  
“So she doesn’t. Good. Close to the vest. I admire that. I’ve got a few secrets of my own. Of all the reasons I didn’t want my daughter to date…”

“We’re not dating,” Toni mentions.

Killian grins and shrugs. “Toni, nothing is more important than family. You saved my daughter’s life. I could never forget something like that. So I’m gonna give you one chance. Are you ready? You walk through those doors, you forget any of this happened. And don’t you ever, ever interfere with my business again. Because if you do, I’ll kill you and everybody you love. I’ll kill you dead. That’s what I’ll do to protect my family. Do you understand?”

Toni looks down at her pumps as the car stops moving and nods. 

“Good. Now, you’re gonna go down and show my daughter a good time. I’ll come right after you.” 

She can’t get out of the car fast enough and she lifts her dress as she scrambles up the steps to the entrance. Maya walks up to her and Toni hopes she’s not sweating too much.

“Hey. What did he say to you?” 

Toni searches her face for any sign of _something_ and ends up just looking to the side. “Nothing, it’s fine. Just wanted to know about P.I. and all that.” 

Maya sighs. “Sorry about him, he has a weird obsession with the company. Anyways, I have to go talk to a few people, but I’ll see you in a few?” 

Toni nods and Maya tilts her chin over to the live band and where people were dancing. “Save one for me, yeah?” 

“Yeah,” Toni tells her and watches her smile and slip away. 

Toni takes a few deep breaths and almost jumps onto the ceiling as a hand claps on her back.

‘Something wrong?” Rhodey asks and Toni takes in her maroon pantsuit with a black cami and pumps, braids cascading over her shoulders.

She debates telling her roommate, but ultimately settled on, “Maybe, but probably not.” 

Rhodey furrows her eyebrows. “Should it be something we should be worried about?” 

“Don’t worry, Platypus,” She shakes her head. “But you still have that thing that tracks my phone, right? And you still carry two phones on you, too, right?” 

When Rhodey confirms that she does to both and hands her a nondescript phone from her purse, Toni breaths out in relief. “Good, I’m gonna go get a drink.” 

“Something legal.” Rhodey tells her as she walks towards the bar, opening the phone and turning the motion notifications on for her phone.

She smiles and winks at the bartender, leaning over the counter. “Hi there, could I get Sex on the Be-” 

“She’ll have a Shirley Temple.” A voice interrupts and Toni turns her head to glower at the person as the bartender nods with a smirk.

“Pepper, let me live my life.” 

“I’ll let you live life responsibly.” Pepper tells her and she groans, giving him a full body scan.

His red hair, while usually wavy and falling into his eyes, was perfectly coiffed up and complementing his navy suit with a thin black tie.

“I like your suit.” Something tugged at the back of her mind. “Did I-”

Pepper nods. “Yes, it’s from you. Thank you, by the way.” 

“It’s no problem.” Toni tells him. From where she was, she can see everyone in the room, some sitting down at the big circular tables and some standing, just talking. She catches sight of Killian and watches him as she nurses the Shirly Temple Pepper hands her.

“You, um,” Toni sees Pepper flush red from the corner of her eye. “You look beautiful.” 

“Thanks, Pep.”

They watch people for a few minutes before Pepper speaks up again. 

“Would you like to dance?” 

Toni sets her drink down. “Sure.”

Pepper smiles and holds his hand out, which she takes. Once on the dance floor, Pepper spins her around and Toni walks through the steps Natasha taught her earlier. 

“I hope you’re prepared to have your face in the news.” Toni smirks as the twirl around a few other couples. 

Peppers’s eyebrows furrows. “What?” 

“Maya Hansen is actually my date for tonight.” Toni spins under his arm. “Yet, here I am, dancing with you. They’re gonna have a field day.” 

“It’s a good thing I’m in PR, too, then.” He rolls his eyes, the green glinting under the bright lights. 

Toni’s about to respond when the phone vibrates in her pocket and she pulls it out with a frown, reading the notification.

“I have to go.” She says suddenly, pulling away from the taller man. 

Toni can hear Pepper ask her something as she darts away, careful to not trip on her heels. In a moment of deja vu, she makes eye contact with Maya from across the room as she turned out into the main hallway. 

Once she’s far away enough from the busy crowd of people, Toni slips her heels off and start sprinting down another hallway, pulling up the hem of her dress and racking her brain to the first week of school. Now, something that the students of MIT may not know is that there’s an Iron Spider suit in basically every building. The only one who may know that something was up would be the janitor because the door didn’t open to anyone but her. Toni finds this one easily enough, away from any cameras, and she opens the door as the handle registers her fingerprint. Inside, she flipped the light switch on and puts her shoes down on the small table inside, taking two steps to the other side of the room to grab a plain black military grade briefcase from the bottom of the shelf there. 

Putting that on the table, Toni types in the code and opens it to reveal the most basic of Iron Spider suit. It wasn’t like the one Parker took away and in fact, it was more like his suit, a reinforced type of spandex that only had original Iron Spider colorings. More red and gold without any silver accents.

Toni twists around and unzips her dress, stepping out of it and tossing it on top of her shoes as she removes her earrings and puts it on the pile. She shimmies into the suit and presses the spider symbol on her chest, causing it to basically vacuum seal her body and knocking the breath out of her chest.

“That’s why I hated this suit.” Toni mumbles as she flexes and grabs the mask. “That and the lack of literally every aspect that I might need.” She crosses her wrists and tape them together to form her web shooters before unlocking the small window at the top of another wall. 

She puts the mask on and climbs out of the window, closing it behind her. Toni jumps down into a near empty parking lot and checks the phone to see where Killian was to-

Something sharp spikes across her back and Toni gets thrown across the concrete. She looks up to find the man from the ferry standing above her, a sparking gauntlet in one hand. 

“He gave you a choice. You chose wrong.”

“Ah, what the hell?” Toni spits out. 

Schultz scoffs, clicking some buttons on the gauntlet. “What’s with the crappy costume?”

Toni reaches out with one hand only to find the web not shooting. _It must have been jammed when he tosses me._ As her other hand snaps out to web him, he punches a car and Toni has to doge before it flies into her.

“Why did he send you here?” Toni pants out, scrambling back onto his feet.

The man smirked. “Guess you’ll never know.” His gauntlet, fully charged up again, aims and-

_thwip!_

Toni’s head snaps to the right and sees Rhodey standing there, a web connecting her hand to Schultz’s gauntlet.

“Nice shot!” Toni calls over as she grabs the strand and janks the gauntlet away from the man and webs him up to the wall with her working web shooter. 

“What’s going on?” Rhodey asks as she runs over and it’s only then does Toni realize Pepper is standing right behind her. 

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Toni tells her. She shucks off the jammed web shooter and takes the one Rhodey offers out. _Thank god I gave her a set._

“Antonia Stark.” Pepper says and she realizes her mistake a moment too late as she looks at him with wide eyes.

_Act stupid!_

“Who’s Antonia Stark?” 

_Not that stupid!_

Pepper pinches the bridge of his nose. “Toni, we’ll talk about this later. You do what you have to do and we’ll support you from back here.”

Rhodey nods, her phone already out and calling the one in her other hand. She must have picked it up off the ground.. “Go.”

Toni takes the phone and gives the both of them nods, following the tracker on her phone. 

“ _~Where can we find a computer, our dorm is too far away~maybe we can break into an office or something~_ ” 

Toni runs into the street and is nearly hit by a silver sports car driven by none other than Justin Hammer. 

“I need your car.” Toni demand and Hammer only objects for a sentence before he and his date are scrambling out of it. 

“Please, it’s my dad’s car so-” Toni’s already driving away.

“ _~Toni, did you steal Hammer’s car?~_ ”

“Pepper, there are more important things to focus on.” She grinds out, kicking the car into high gear.

“ _~She doesn’t even have her license~Toni! You don’t have a license~Found an open office~_ ”

Toni ignores them for now and follows the tracker, avoiding hitting a bus. 

“ _~You know how to hack?~And you don’t, Virgil? Toni, I am… in. Take a left.~”_

She follows Rhodey’s instructions, taking a quick glance at the dashboard. “Hey, where are the headlights on this car?” 

“ _~I’ll pull up specs on the car, V, it’s your turn~Uh, he just passed the GameStop on Jackson Avenue~Tones, should we call Parker?~_

Toni makes the appropriate turns. “I got this covered. Nat’s also in town, so she’s here if we need her.” 

“ _~Who’s ‘Nat’?~Black Widow~Black Widow?!~_

“Guys, focus,” She looks at the map again. “Where are we with the headlights?” 

“ _~Round knob to the left of the steering wheel turn clockwise~He’s in an old industrial park nearby, I think~”_

“What park? There aren’t any nearby.” Toni points out.

“~ _It’s unmarked, I think~No, it’s not. Toni, it’s the factory Packer owns.~_ ”

“Why would he be headed there? Unless…” She thinks back to the conversation she and Natasha had earlier. “Nat said she was here to survive like, a moving day of one of the factories. Like, the whole thing, is it the same one?”  
“ _~There’s no other one’s nearby, so most likely~Why’s he headed there?~He’s gonna steal the tech, V.~”_

Toni curses and enters an empty road, zooming down it. 

“ _~Okay, you’re getting close, just turn right~TURN RIGHT, TONI! NOW!”_

She curses again and shoots a web out to make the sharp turn. The car screeches and turns, crashing into a streetlight and Toni hops out.

“ _~Wow, she really did that~Toni, are you okay?~_ ”

“Yeah,” She breathes out. Toni scans the surroundings and leaps over the fence. “This isn’t where the factory is, though.”

“ _~No, the factory seems to be a few lots down. Still pretty close, though~Shit, I think someone’s coming~It’s been an honor working with you, Iron Spider~What are you two doing here?~We’re… looking… at… porn?~ V, you idiot.~”_

The line cuts off and Toni shakes her head, looking up at the warehouse before her. She tucks into the shadows and runs towards it.

_thwip! thwip!_

Toni creeps towards an open window on the roof and slowly ascends down into the warehouse hanging from a web. Killian was standing on a platform or such, going over what seems to be blueprints and lists. There was a big empty structure on the platform, too, but it was empty and stark. Ha. Stark.

“Hey!” She calls out to Killian. “Surprised?”

The man turns slowly. “Oh, hey, Toni. I didn’t hear you come in.” He was in another outfit already, an aviator jacket and cargo pants.

Toni walks towards him. “It’s over. I’ve got you.”

He turns back to his papers. “You know, I gotta tell you, Toni, I really, really admire your grit. I see why Maya likes you. I do. When you first came to the house, I wasn’t sure. I thought, “Really?” But I get it now.”

“How could you do this to her?” She asks.

“To her?” He laughs. “ I’m not doing anything to her, Toni. I’m doing this _for_ her.”

“Huh, yeah.” Her hand whips out and webs Killian’s left hand to the desk.

The man sighs. “Toni, you’re young. You don’t understand how the world works.”

“Yeah, but I understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong.”

“How do you think your cousin Parker paid for that tower? Or any of his little toys?” Killian speaks calmly, like he’s explaining something to a little child. “Those people, Toni, those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don’t care about us. You may be up there now, but you and I? We started out the same, before you met Paker.

“We build their roads and we fight all their wars and everything, but they don’t care about us. We have to pick up after ‘em. We have to eat their table scraps. That’s how it is. I know you know what I’m talking about, Toni.”

“Why are you telling me this?” She cries out.

“Because I want you to understand.” Killian shrugs. “And... I needed a little time to get her airborne.” He pulls a switchblade out of his pocket and that’s the only warning Toni gets before the Vulture wings fly out from behind her, which she ducks.

The wings continue to attack, but Toni doges them all, flipping and turning, trying to short the system with electrical webs. 

“I’m sorry, Toni.” killian raises his voice to be heard over the wings’s whirring noises.

“What are you talking about?” Toni pants. “That thing hasn’t even touched me yet.” Static was buzzing in her shoulders and arms and she was ready to output a large one.

“True. Then again, wasn’t really trying to.”

Toni looks around at the wing and notices only then that the pillars around her were crumbling. She locks eyes with Killian for a brief moment before the building crashes down on top of her.

\-----

There’s something wrong.

That’s the first thing Toni notices when she comes to. Besides the crushing feeling of a building on top of her, there’s something missing, deep down inside of her. But it’s hard to figure out because she has bigger problems to worry about.

Her chest is tight, too tight, and Toni claws the mask off her face, taking in what breaths she can of the dusty air. It’s not much and it’s not enough, but there’s nothing else she can do. Her legs and torso were trapped, something sharp digging into her hip and a pinched feeling all over her body.

Her brain can’t even comprehend the amount of pain she must be in and she just briefly registers the tears on her face.

“Okay, okay,” Her breath hitches. “If I-” _-expel enough electricity, it should push away the series around me. It should, it should, it should._

Toni grits her teeth and tries. She tries and tries and that’s what’s wrong. It’s gone. The static that’s been with her since the bite was gone. Toni sobs and looks around, unfocused vision falling onto a cuff around her forearm. She brings the arm closer to herself and curses Killian into oblivion as she reads what’s etched onto the metal.

“ _Iron Spider Removal EMP_ ”

Something creaks from above her and Toni whimpers as her body is pinned down even more.

“H-hello?!” She cries out, screams. “Please. Hey, hey, please. I’m down here. I’m down here. I’m stuck. I’m stuck. I can’t move. I can’t…”

_Who am I asking? Telling? There’s no one around._

Toni gives up and sobs again, her face falling towards the puddle below her. She takes herself in, the smeared makeup on her face and the messed up hair. The streaks of tears and her red eyes.

“ _If you’re nothing without the Iron Spider suit, then you shouldn’t have it.”_

Toni looks away and takes as deep of a breath as she could. _I’m gonna do it. I can do it._ She struggles onto her forearm and pushes off the ground as hard as she could. “Come on, Toni. Come on, Iron Spider.”

Rhodey’s and Pepper’s face flashed in her mind. Maya’s flashes next to them. Parker and Harley. MJ and Leeds. Natasha and Barnes. Jarvis.

“C’mon Iron Spider, c’mon!” 

With herculean effort, the concrete and metal sheiks from above her as Toni pushes and pushes and scrambles out of the way before it all came crashing down again.

Toni lays there panting as the tears roll down her face. After what feels like an eternity, she cracks the EMP off her wrist, grabs her mask, and does what she does best.

Stands up again.

\-----

Toni watches as the Vulture wings explode and she can feel the heat licked her face, her warning dying in her throat.

It was after the whole fight on the plane, with it finally crash landing in a park and bringint Killian and Toni don with it. Killian was trying to hijack the plane and almost succeeded, too, before Toni showed up right behind him.

She scrambles to her feet and limps towards the flames, finding an opening and dragging herself towards Killian’s collapsed body. The wings were a crumbles mess on top of him and she grits her teeth only for her to scream as her hands make contact with the hot metal. Still, she heaves and pulls it off him. Grabbing Killian by the armpits, she pulls him through the burning sand and boxes into a relatively empty area, setting him down.

Toni coughs and pants, bending over, but her job wasn’t done yet. It wasn’t done until she had gathered everything together and webbed Killian to the front of it with a nice, left over message.

Later, she sits on the top of a building and spots a familiar redhead pick her way through the flames. 

Toni blinks the tears away from her eyes and hopes that for once, they’ll be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to leave a comment down below lmao. i know i skipped over the final fight but i am just,,, so tired.
> 
> thank you for reading!
> 
> Twitter: @kimchi_writes  
> Tumblr: @lotusarts


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